The Jews in Poland : official reports of the American and British Investigating Missions

VS5

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

The

Jews in Poland

Official Reports of
The American and British Investigating Missions

1.

The Morgenthau Report

2.

The Jadwin and Johnson Report

3.

Letter of Sir H. Rumhold

4.

The Samuel Report

5.

The White Report

6.

Miscellaneous Letters

7.

The Situation

8.

The Minority Rights Treaty

Published in order to bring about a better understanding of the
necessity for honest and constructive effort in solving a problem
that is only made more difficult by attacks and recriminations.

The National Polish Committee of America

1214 North Ashland Ave., Chicago. 111.

Cornell University
Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028644783

THE JEWS IN POLAND

OFFICIAL REPORTS OF

The American and British Investigating Missons

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
2

Preface _--.. -...

Letters of Transmittal — American Report ... ,3

The Morgenthau Report --.-.... 4

The Jadwin and Johnson Report - - - - 1 1

An Excerpt from the Jadwin-Johnson Report - - - - 1 8

Letter of Transmittal — British Report (Sir H. Rumbold) - - - 19

The Samuel Report - - - - - '- - - -22

The Captain Wright Report - - - - - - - 33

Typical Hymns of Hate --._-_. -49

The Truth? ... 55

The Situation - - - - - - - - - -56

The' Polish Treaty - - - - - - - - -61

THE NATIONAL POLISH COMMITTEE OF AMERICA

^

1214 North Ashland Avenue, Chicago, 111.

in.

PREFACE

THIS booklet, containing the complete reports of the American and Brit-
ish Missions to Poland, is published in order to bring about a better
understanding of the necessity for honest and constructive effort in
solving a problem that is only made more difficult by attacks and recrimina-
tions. These reports should be studied carefully by the reader. Unfortxm-
ately certain portions of the Morgenthau Report and a great deal of the
Samuel Report have been used by certain groups of propagandists in a
manner that must have been distressing at least to Mr. Morgenthau. There-
fore, it was felt to be a duty to have all the reports published in full, that
they might be studied and compared in fairness to the question itself.

Poles and Jews must live together in Poland. No race or religion can
claim a monopoly of virtue. If certain elements of the Polish population
have at times apparently persecuted the Jews, perhaps there was some real
reason for their antagonism. A study of these Reports may give some of
the reasons for such periodic outbreaks. Moreover, a study of these Reports
cannot fail to result in complete vindication of the Polish Government. So
far as the Polish people have been concerned, in Poland proper, "eighteen
Jews lost their lives," according to the British Minister to Poland. It is diffi-
cult to indict a people on the record made by groups of outlaw soldiery on
an active front.

Examples of inflammatory propaganda are quoted in this booklet. TTiese
are typical, and no effort was made to pick out the most violent. Every
newspaper reader is familiar with this propaganda, and its constant repetition
has won many to an unjustified hatred of the Polish people. It is often for-
gotten that these voices carry far, and that the impression made upon the
Pole fighting for his country is not always consistent with perpetual' peace and
harmony between this Pole and his Jewish neighbor in Poland.

Violence of expression, the waging of bitter anti-Polish propaganda in
the United States, picketing the Polish Legation, reporting in Hearst news-
papers "pogrom" atrocities laid to Poles in towns still many miles east of
the Russian military front, "mourning" parades, delegations to the President
.... all these organized and well financed endeavors to assist Jewry by de-
stroying the dearly won freedom of Poland .... are the most deadly threats
to the Jews of Poland, and draw a bitter line of cleavage between Jew and
Pole w^hen it seems that the moderate elements are joining together in a
common effort to improve the relations of those peoples who had decades
ago lived together in mutual respect and harmony. Such relentless antago-
nism as was shown in certain of the Yiddish press that condemned 'Morgen-
thau because he did not report more killed than the facts allowed, acts like
salt on old wounds.

There must be a rapprochement between Poles and Jeyfs in Poland.
There never can be until the circumstances of their modes of living and think-
ing are understood ; until serious men give serious thought and work without
bitterness toward the solution of an undeniable problem. It is to help
toward this solution that this booklet is published.

The Reports

of the

AMERICAN MISSION

LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL

To the Sienate:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary
of State, with accompanying papers, in response to
a resolution of the Senate requesting him to furnish
that body, if not incompatible with the public in-
terest, with the reports made by the mission of the
United States to Poland, headed by the honorable
Henry Morgenthau.

WOODROW WILSON.

The White House,

January 15, 1920.

The PRESIDENT:

The undersigned, the Secretary of State, in re-
sponse to a resolution passed by the Senate of the
United States on October 22 (calendar day, October
28), 1919, reading as follows:

Whereas it is understood that the mission of the United
States Government to Poland, headed by Hon. Henry
Morgenthau, has completed its work, and Mr. Morgen-
thau has made a report to the Secretary of State: There-
fore be it

Resolved, That the Secretary of State is hereby requested
to send to the Senate, if it is not incompatible with the
public interest, a copy of said report,

has the honor to submit herewith for transmission
to the Senate, if the President approve thereof, a
copy of the report made by the honorable Henry
Morgenthau, head of the mission, and a copy of a
report made by the other members of the mission.
Gen. Edgar Jadwin, United States Army, and Mr.
Homer H. Johnson.

Respectfully submitted.

ROBERT LANSING.

Department of State,

Washington, January 14, 1920.

I

The Morgenthau Report

American Commission to Negotiate Peace,
Mission to Poland,

Paris, October 3, 1919.
To the American commission to negotiate peace.

Gentlemen : 1. A mission, consisting of Mr. Henry
Morgenthau, Brig. Gen. Edgar Jadwin, and Mr.
, Homer H. Johnson, was appointed by the American
/ commission to negotiate peace to investigate Jewish
matters in PolarTd. The appointment of such a mis-
sion had previously been requested by Mr. Pader-
ewski, president of the council of ministers of the
Republic of Poland. On June 30, 1919, Secretary
Lansing wrote to this mission :

It is desired that the mission make careful inquiry into
all matters affecting the relations between the Jewish and
non-Jewish elements in Poland. This will, of course, in-
volve the investigation of the various massacres, pogroms,
and other excesses alleged to have taken place, the eco-
nomic boycott, and other methods of discrimination against
the Jewish race. The establishment of the truth in regard
to these matters is not, however, an end in itself. It is
merely for the purpose of seeking to discover the reason
lying behind such excesses and discriminations with a view
to finding a possible remedy. The American Government
as you know, is inspired by a friendly desire to render
service to all elements in the new Poland — Christians and
Jews alike. I am convinced that any measures that may
be taken to ameliorate the conditions of the Jews will also
benefit the rest of the population and that, conversely,
anything done for the community benefit of Poland as a
whole will be of advantage to the Jewish race. I am
sure that the members of your mission are approaching
the subject in the right spirit, free from prejudice one way
or the other, and filled with a desire to discover the truth
and , evolve some constructive measures to improve the
situation which give concern to all the friends of Poland.

2. The mission reached Warsaw on July 13, 1919,
and remained in Poland until September 13, 1919.
All the places where the principal excesses had oc-
curred were visited. In addition thereto the mission
also studied the economic and social conditions in
such places as Hodz, Krakau, Grodno, Kalisch,
Posen, Cholm, Lublin, and Stanislawow. By auto-
mobiling over 2,500 miles through Russian, Aus-
trian, and German Poland, the mission also came
into immediate contact with the inhabitants of the
small towns and villages. In order properly to
appreciate the present cultural and social conditions,
the mission also visited educational institutions, li-
braries, hospitals, museums, art galleries, orphan
asylums, and prisons.

3. Investigations of the excesses were made most-
ly in the presence of representatives of the Polish
Government and of the Jewish communities. There
were also present in many cases military and civil
officials and, wherever possible, officials in command
at the time the excesses occurred were conferred

with and interrogated. In this work the Polish
authorities and the American minister to Poland,
Mr. Hugh Gibson, lent the mission every facility.
Deputations of all kinds of organizations were re-
ceived and interviewed. A large number of public
meetings and gatherings were attended, and the
mission endeavored to obtain a correct impression
of what had occurred, of the present mental state
of the public, and of the attitude of the various fac-
tions toward one another.

4. The Jews first, entered Poland in large numbers
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when
they migrated from Germany and other countries as
the result of severe persecutions. Their language
was German, which subsequently developed into a
Hebrew-German dialect, or Yiddish. As prior to
this immigration only two classes or estates had
existed in Poland (the owners and the tillers of the
soil), the Jewish immigrant became the pioneer of
trade and finance, settling in the towns and villages.
As time went on it became generally known
throughout Europe that Poland was a place of
refuge for the Jews, and their numbers were aug- '
mented as a result of persecutions in western
Europe. Still more recently, as a result of the ex-
pulsion of the Jews from Russia, on account of the
enforcement of the pale of settlement, and of the
May laws of 1882, their number was further in-
creased.

5. Notwithstanding the fact that Poland has been
a place of refuge for the Jews, there have been anti-
Jewish movements at various times. The present
anti-Semitic feeling took a definite political form
after the Russion revolution of 1905. This feeling
reached an intense stage in 1912, when the Polish
National Democratic Party nominated an anti-Se-
mite to represent Warsaw in the Russian Duma
and the Jews cast their vote for a Polish Socialist
and carried the election. The National Democratic
Party then commenced a vigorous anti-Semitic cam-
paign. During the German occupation this cam-
paign was temporarily reduced. At the end of the
Great War the chaotic and unnatural state of affairs
in which Poland found itself gave good ground for
a condition of social unrest, which, together with the
world-stimulated tendency toward national self-de-
termination, accentuated the feeling between Jew-
ish and non-Jewish elements. The chauvinistic re-
action created by the sudden acquisition of a long-
coveted freedom ripened the public mind for anti-
Semitic or anti-alien sentiment, which was strong-
ly agitated by the press and by politicians. This
finally encouragedlphysical manifestations of violent
outcroppings of an unbalanced social condition.

6. When, in November, 1918, the Austrian
and German armies of occupation left Poland
there was no firm government until the ar-
rival of Gen. Pilsudski, who had escaped from
a German prison, and it was duringthis period,
before the Polish Republic came into being,
that the first of the excesses took place. (The
mission has purposely avoided the use of the
word "pogrom," as the word is applied to
everything from petty outrages to premedi-
tated and carefully organized massacres. No
fixed definition is generally understood.)
There were eight principal excesses, which
are here described in chronological order.

(1) Kielce, November 11, 1918.

Shortly after the evacuation of the Austrian
troops from Kielce the Jews of this city secured
permission from the local authorities to hold a meet-
ing in the Polski Theater. The purpose of this
meeting was to discuss Jewish national aspirations.^
It began shortly before 2 o'clock and filled the thea-
ter to overflowing. During the afternoon a small
crowd of Polish civilians, largely composed of
students, gathered outside of the theater. At 6.30
p. m. the meeting began to break up, arid when only
about 300 people remained in the theater, some mili-
tiamen entered and began to search for arms. A
short while thereafter, and while the militiamen
were still in the building, a crowd of civilians and
some soldiers came into the auditorium and drove
the Jews from the stairs. On the stairs there was a
double line of men armed with clubs and bayonets,
who beat the Jews as they left the building. After
the Jews reached the street they were again beaten
by a mob outside. As a result of this attack four
Jews were killed and a large number wounded. A
number of civilians have been indicted for participa-
tion in this excess, but have not as yet been brought
to trial.

(2) Lemberg, November 21-23, 1918.

On October 30, 1918, when the Austrian Empire
collapsed, the Ukrainian troops, formerly in the
Austrian service, assumed control of the town. A
few hundred Polish boys, combined with numerous
volunteers of doubtful character, recaptured about
half the city and held it until the arrival of Polish
reinforcements on November 21. The Jewish pop-
ulation declared themselves neutral, but the fact
that the Jewish quarter lay within the section occu-
pied by the Ukrainians, and that the Jews had or-
ganized their own militia, and further, the rumor
that some of the Jewish population had fired upon
the soldiery, stimulated amongst the Polish volun-
teers an anti-Semitic bias that readily communicated
itself to the relieving troops.- The situation was
further complicated by the presence of some 15,000
uniformed deserters and numerous criminals re-
leased by the Ukrainians from local jails, who were
ready to join in any disorder, particularly if, as in
the case of wholesale pillage, they might profit
thereby.
, Upon the final departure of the Ukrainians, these

disreputable elements plundered to the extent of
many millions of crowns the dwellings and stores
in the Jewish quarter, and did not hesitate at mur-
der when they met with resistance. During the
ensuing disorders, which prevailed on November 21,
22, and 23, 64 Jews were killed and a large amount
of property destroyed. Thirty-eight houses were
set on fire, and owing to the paralysis of the fire
department, were completely gutted. The Syna-
gogue was also burned, and large numbers of the
sacred scrolls of the law were destroyed. The
repression of the disorders was rendered more diffi-
cult by the prevailing lack of discipline among the
newly organized Polish troops, and by a certain
hesitation among the junior officers to apply stern
punitive measures. When officers' patrols under
experienced leaders were finally organized on No-
vember 23, robbery and violence ceased.

As early as December -24, 1918, the Polish Gov-
ernment, through the ministry of justice, began a
strict investigation of the events of November 21
and 23. A special commission, headed by a justice
of the supreme court, sat in Lemberg for about two
months, and rendered an extensive formal report
whfch has been furnished this mission. In spite of
the crowded dockets of the local courts, where over
7,000 cases are now pending, l64 persons, ten of
them Jews, have been tried for complicity in the
November disorders, and numerous similar cases
await disposal. Forty-four persons are under sen-
tences ranging from 10 days to 18 months. Aside
from the civil courts, the local court-martial has
sentenced military persons to confinement for as
long as three years for lawlessness during the period
in question. This mission is advised that on the
basis of official investigations the Government has
begun the payment of claims for damages resulting
from these events.

(3) Pinsk, April 5, 1919.

Late in the afternoon of April 5, 1919, a month
or more after the Polish occupation of Pinsk, some
75 Jews of both sexes, with the official permission
of the town commander, gathered in the assembly
hall at the People's House, in the Kupiecka Street,
to discuss the distribution of relief sent by the Amer-
ican joint distribution committee. As the meeting
was about to adjourn, it was interrupted by a band
of soldiers, who arrested and searched the whole
assembly, and, after robbing the prisoners, marched
them at a rapid pace to gendarmerie headquarters.
Thence the prisoners were conducted to the market
place and lined up against the wall of the cathedral.
With no light except the lamps of a military auto-
mobile the six women in the crowd, and about 25
men, were separated from the mass, and the re-
mainder, 35 in number, were shot with scant delib-
eration and no trial whatever. Early the next morn-
ing three wounded victims were shot in cold blood
when it was found that they were still alive.

The women and other reprieved prisoners were
confined in the city jail until the following Thurs-
day. The women were stripped and beaten by the

prison guards so severely that several of them were
bed-ridden for weeks thereafter, and the men were
subjected to similar maltreatment.

It has been asserted officially by the Polish au-
thorities that there was reason to suspect this
assemblage of bolshevist allegiance. This mission
is convinced that no arguments of bolshevist nature
were mentioned in the meeting in question. While
it is recognized that certain information of bolshe-
vist activities jn Pinsk had been received by two
Jewish soldiers, the undersigned is convinced that
Maj. Luczynski, the town commander, showed rep-
rehensible and frivolous readiness to place credence
upon such untested assertions, and on this insuffi-
cient basis took inexcusably drastic action against
reputable citizens whose loyal character could have
been immediately established by a consultation with
any well known non-Jewish inhabitant.

The statements made officially by Gen. Listowski,
the Polish group commander, that the Jewish pop-
ulation on April 5 attacked the Polish troops, are
regarded by this mission as devoid of foundation.
The undersigned is further of the opinion that the
consultation prior to executing the 35 Jews, alleged
by Maj. Luczynski to have had the character of a
court-martial, was by the very nature of the case
a most casual affair with no judicial nature what-
ever, since less than an hour elapsed between the
arrest and the execution. It is further found that
no conscientious effort was made at the time either
to investigate the charges against the prisoners or
even sufficiently to identify them. Though there
have been official investigations of this case none
of the offenders answerable for this summary exe-
cution have been punished or even tried, nor has the
Diet commission published its findings.

(4) Lida, April 17, 1919.

On April 17, 1919, the Polish military forces cap-
tured Lida from the Russian Bolsheviks. After the
city fell into the hands of the Poles the soldiers
proceeded to enter and rob the houses of the Jews.
During this period of pillage 39 Jews were killed
A large number of Jews, including the local rabbi,
were arbitrarily arrested on the same day by the
Polish authorities and kept for 24 hours without food
amid revolting conditions of filth at No. 60 Kamien-
ska Street. Jews were also impressed for forced
labor without respect for age or infirmity. It does
not appear that anyone has been punished for these
excesses, or that any steps have been taken to re-
imburse the victims of the robberies.

(5) Wilna, April 19-21, 1919.

On April 19 Polish detachments entered the city
of Wilna. The city was definitely taken by the
Poles after three days of street fighting, during
which time they lost 33 men killed. During this
same period some 65 Jews lost their lives. From
the evidence submitted it appears that none of these
people, among whom were four women and eight
men over 50 years of age, had served with the Bol-
sheviks. Eight Jews were marched 3 kilometers

to the outskirts of Wilna and deliberately shot with-
out a, semblance of a trial or investigation. Others
were shot by soldiers who were robbing Jewisii
houses. No list has been furnished the mission of
any Polish civilians killed during the occupation.
It is, however, stated on behalf of the Government
that the civilian inhabitants of Wilna took part on
both sides in this fighting, and that some civilians
fired upon the soldiers. Over 2,000 Jewish houses
and stores in the city were entered by Polish sol-
diers and civilians during these three days, and the
inhabitants robbed and beaten. It is claimed by the
Jewish community that the consequent losses
amounted to over 10,000,000 rubles. Many of the
poorest families were robbed of their shoes and
blankets. Hundreds of Jews were arrested and de-
ported from the city. Some of them were herded
into box cars and kept without food or water for
four days. Old men and children were carried away
without trial or investigation. Two of these pris-
oners have since died from the treatment they re-
ceived. Included in this list were some of the most
prominent Jews of Wilna, such as the eminent
Jewish writers, Jaff e and Niger. For days the fami-
lies of these prisoners were without news from them
and feared that they had been killed. The soldiers
also broke into the synagogue and mutilated the
sacred scrolls of the law. Up to August 3, 1919,
when the mission was in Wilna, none of the soldiers
or civilians responsible for these excesses had been
punished.

(6) Kolbuszowa, May 7, 1919.

For a few days before May 7, 1919, the
Jews of Kolbuszowa feared that excesses
might take place, as there had been riots in
the neighboring towns of Rzeszow and Glo-
gow. These riots had been the result of po-
litical agitation in this district and of excite-
ment caused by a case of alleged ritual mur-
der, in which the Jewish defendant had been
acquitted. On May 6 a company of soldiers
was ordered to Kolbuszowa to prevent the
threatened trouble. Early in the morning of
May 7 a great number of peasants, among
whom were many former soldiers of the Aus-
trian Army, entered the town. . The rioters
disarmed the soldiers after two soldiers and
three peasants had been killed. They then
proceeded to rob the Jewish stores and to
beat any Jews who fell into their hands.
Eight Jews were killed during this excess.
Order was restored when a new detachment
of soldiers arrived late in the afternoon. One
of the rioters has since been tried and exe-
cuted by the Polish Government.

(7) Czestochowa, May 27, 1919.

Oft May 27, 1919, at Czestochowa, a shot fired by
an unknown person slightly wounded a Polish sol-
dier. A rumor spread that the shot had been fired
by the Jews, and riots broke out in the city in which
Polish soldiers and civilians took part. During
these riots five Jews, including a doctor who was
hurrying to aid one of the injured, were beaten to

death and a large number were wounded. French
officers, who were stationed at Czestochowa, took
an active part in preventing further murders.

(8) Minsk, August 8, 1919.

On August 8, 1919, the Polish troops took the city
of Minsk from the Russian Bolsheviks. The Polish
troops entered the city at about 10 o'clock in the
morning, and by 12 o'clock they had absolute con-
trol. Notwithstanding the presence in Minsk of
Gen. Jadwin and other members of this mission,
and the orders of the Polish commanding general
forbidding violence against civilians, 31 Jews were
.killed by the soldiers. Only one of this number can
in any way be connected with the bolshevist move-
ment. Eighteen of the deaths appear to have been
deliberate murder. Two of these murders were in-
cident to robberies, but the rest were committed, to
all appearances, solely on the ground that the vic-
tims wcire Jews. During the afternoon and in the
evening' of August 8 the Polish soldiers, aided by
civilians, plundered 2>77 shops, all of which belonged
to Jews. It must be noted, however, that about 90
per cent of the stores in Minsk are owned by Jews.
No effective attempt was made to prevent these rob-
beries until the next morning, when adequate offi-
cers' patrols were sent out through the streets and
order was established. The private houses of many
of the Jews were also broken into by soldiers and
the inhabitants were beaten and robbed. The Po-
lish Government has stated that four Polish sol-
diers were killed while attempting to prevent rob-
beries. It has also been stated to the mission that
some of the rioters have been executed.

7. There have also been here and there individual
cases of murder not enumerated in the preceding
paragraphs, but their detailed description has not
been considered necessary inasmuch as they present
no characteristics not already observed in the prin-
cipal excesses. In considering these excesses as a
whole, it should be borne in mind that of the eight
cities and towns at which striking disorders have
occurred, only Kielce and Czestochowa are within
the boundaries of Congress Poland.^ In Kielce and
Kolbuszowa the excesses were committed by city
civilians and by peasants, respectively. At Czes-
tochowa both civilians and soldiers took part in the
disorders. At Pinsk the excess was essentially the
fault of one officer. In Lemberg, Lida, Wilna, and
Minsk the excesses were committed by the soldiers
who were capturing the cities and not by the civilian
population. In the three last-named cities the anti-
Semitic prejudice of the soldiers had been inflamed
by the charge that the Jews were Bolsheviks, while
at Lemberg it was associated with the idea that the
Jews were making common cause with the Ukrain-
ians. These excesses were, therefore, political as
well as anti-Semitic in character. The responsibility
for these excesses is borne for the most part by the
undisciplined and ill-equipped Polish recruits, who,
uncontrolled by their inexperienced and ofttimes
timid officers, sought to profit at the expense of
that portion of the population which they regarded

as alien and hostile to Polish nationality and aspira-
tions. It is recognized that the enforcement of dis-
cipline in a new and untrained army is a matter of
extreme difficulty. On the other hand, the prompt
cessation of disorder in Lemberg after the adoption
of appropriate measures of control shows that an
unflinching determination to restore order and a
firm application of repressive measures can prevent,
or at least limit, such excesses. It is, therefore, be-
lieved that a more aggressive punitive policy, and
a more general publicity for reports of judicial and
military prosecutions, would have minimized sub-
sequent excesses by discouraging the belief among
the soldiery that robbery and violence could be com-
mitted with impunity.

8. Just as the Jews would resent being con-
demned as a race for the action of a few of
their undesirable coreligionists, so it would be
correspondingly unfair to condemn the Polish
nation as a whole for the violence committed
by uncontrolled troops or local mobs. These
excesses were apparently not premeditated,
for if they had been part of a preconceived
plan, the number of victims would have run
into the thousands instead of amounting to
about 280. It is believed that these excesses
were the result of a widespread anti-Semitic
prejudice aggravated by the belief that the
Jewish inhabitants were politically hostile to
the Polish State. When the boundaries of
Poland are once fixed, and the internal or-
ganization of the country is perfected, the Po-
lish Government will be increasingly able to -
protect all classes of Polish citizenry. Since
the Polish Republic has subscribed to the
treaty which provides for the protection of
racial, religious and linguistic minorities, it is
confidently anticipated that the Government
will whole-heartedly accept the responsibil-
ity, not only of guarding Certain classes of its
citizens from aggression, but also of educat-
ing the masses beyond the state of mind that
makes such aggression possible.

9. Besides these excesses there have been reported
to the mission numerous cases of other forms of per-
secutions. Thus, in almost every one of the cities
and towns of Poland, Jews have been stopped by
the soldiers and had their beards either torn out or
cut off. As the orthodox Jews feel that the shaving
of their beards is contrary to their religious belief,
this form of persecution has a particular sigfnificance
to them. Jews also have been beaten and forced
from trains and railroad stations. As a result many
of them are afraid to travel. The result of all these
minor persecutions is to keep the Jewish population
in a state of ferment, and to subject them to the
fear that graver excesses may again occur.

10. Whereas it has been easy to determine the
excesses which took place and to fix the approxi-
mate number of deaths, it was more difficult to
establish the extent of anti-Jewish discrimination.
This discrimination finds its most conspicuous man-
ifestation in the form of an economic boycott. The

national Democratic Party has continuously agi-
tated the economic strangling of the Jews. Through
the press and political announcements, as well as
by public speeches, the non-Jewish element of the
Polish people is urged to abstain from dealing with
the jews. Landowners are warned not to sell their
property to Jews, and in some cases where such
sales have been made, the names of the offenders
have been posted within black-bordered notices,
stating that such vendors were "dead to Poland."
Even at the present time, this campaign is being
waged by most of the non-Jewish press, which con-
stantly advocates that the economic boycott be used
as a means of ridding Poland of its Jewish element.
This agitation had created in the minds of some of
the Jews the feeling that there is an invisible rope
around their necks, and they claim that this .is the
worst persecution that they can be forced to endure.
Non-Jewish laborers have in many cases refused to
work side by side with Jews. The percentage of
Jews in public office, especially those holding minor
positions, such as railway employees, firemen, po-
licemen, and the like, has been materially reduced
since the present Government has taken control.
Documents have been furnished the mission show-
ing that Government-owned railways have dis-
charged Jewish employes and given them certifi-
cates that they have been released for no other rea-
son than that they belong to the Jewish race.

11. Further, the establishment of co-opera-
, tive stores is claimed by many Jewish traders

to be a form of discrimination. It would seem,
however, that this movement is a legitimate
effort to restrict the activities and therefore
the profits of the middleman. Unfortunately,
when these stores were introduced into Po-
land, they were advertised as a means of elim-
inating the Jewish trader. The Jews have,
therefore, been caused to feel that the estab-
lishment of co-operatives is an attack upon
themselves. While the establishment and
the maintenance of co-operatives may have
been influenced by anti-Semitic sentiment,
this is a form of economic activity which any
community is perfectly entitled to pursue.
On the other hand, the Jews complain that
even the Jewish co-operatives and individual
Jews are discriminated against by the Gov-
ern in the distribution of Government-con-
trolled supplies.

12. The Government has denied that dis-
crimination against Jews has been practiced
as a Government policy, though it has not
denied that there may be individual cases
where anti-Semitism has played a part. As-
surances have been made to the mission by
official authorities that in so far as it lies
within the power of the Government this dis-
crimination will be corrected.

13. In considering the causes for the anti-
Semitic feeling which has brought about the
manifestations described above, it must be re-

membered that ever since the partition of
1795 the Poles have striven to be reunited as
a nation and to regain their freedom. This
continual effort to keep alive their national
aspirations has caused them to look with
hatred upon anything which might interfere
with their aims. This has led to a conflict
with the nationalist declarations of some of
the Jewish organizations which desire to es- ,
tablish cultural autonomy financially sup-
ported by the state.* In addition, the posi-
tion taken by the Jews in favor of article 93
of the treaty of Versailles, guaranteeing pro-
tection to racial, linguistic and religious
minorities in Poland has created a further
resentment against them.^ Moreover, Po-
lish national feeling is irritated by what is
regarded as the "alien" character of the great
mass of the Jewish population. This is con-
stantly brought home to the Poles by the fact
that the majority of the Jews affect a distinc-
tive dress, observe the Sabbath on Saturday,
conduct business on Sunday, have separate
dietary laws, wear long beards, and speak a
language of their own. The basis of this lan-
guage is a German dialect, and the fact that
Germany was, and still is, looked upon by the
Poles as an enemy country renders this ver-
nacular especially unpopular. The concen-
tration of the Jews in separate districts or
quarters in Polish cities also emphasizes the
line of demarcation separating them from
other citizens.

14. The strained relations between the Jews and
non-Jews have been further increased not only by
the Great War, during which Poland was the bat-
tleground for the Russian, German, and Austrian
Armies but also by the present conflicts with the
Bolsheviks and the Ukrainians. The economic con-
dition of Poland is at its lowest ebb. Manufactur-
ing and commerce have virtually ceased. The
shortage, the high price, and the imperfect distribu-
tion of food, are a dangerous menace to the health
and welfare of the urban population. As a result,
hundreds of thousands are suffering from hunger
and are but half clad, while thousands are dying
of disease and starvation. The cessation of com-
merce is particularly felt by the Jewish population,
who are almost entirely dependent upon it. Owing
to the conditions described, prices have doubled and
tripled, and the population has become irritated
against the Jewish traders, whom it blames for the
abnormal increase thus occasioned.

15. The great majority of Jews in Poland belong
to separate Jewish political parties. The largest
of these are the Orthodox, the Zionist, and the Na-
tional. Since the Jews form separate political
groups it is probable that some of the Polish dis-
crimination against them is political rather than
anti-Semitic in character. The dominant Polish
parties give to their supporters Government posi-
tions and Government patronage. It is to be hoped,
however, that the Polish majority will not follow

this system in the case of positions which are not
essentially political. There should be no discrimi-
nation in the choice of professors and teachers, nor
in the selection of railroad employees, policemen,
and firemen, or the incumbents of any other posi-
tions which are placed under the civil service in
England and the United States. Like other de-
mocracies, Poland must realize that these positions
must not be drawn into politics. Efficiency can only
be attained if the best men are employed, irrespec-
tive of party or religion.

16. The relations between the Jews and
non-Jews will undoubtedly improve in a
strong democratic Poland. To hasten this
there should be reconciliation and co-opera-
tion between the 86 per cent Christians and
the 14 per cent Jews. The 86 per cent must
realize that they can not present a solid front
against their neighbors if one-seventh of the
population is discontented, fear-stricken, and
inactive. The minority must be encouraged
to participate with their whole strength and
influence in making Poland the great unified
country that is required in central Europe to
combat -the tremendous dangers that con-
front it. Poland' must promptly develop its
full strength, and by its conduct first merit
and then receive the unstinted moral, finan-
cial, and economic support of all the world,
which will insure the future success of the
Republic.

17. It was impossible for the mission, during the
two months it was in Poland, to do more than ac-
quaint itself with the general condition of the peo-
ple. To formulate a solution of the Jewish problem
will necessitate a careful and broad study, not only
of the economic condition of the Jews, but also of
the exact requirements of Poland. These require-
ments will not be definitely known prior to the fixa-
tion of Polish boundaries, and the final regulation
of Polish relations with Russia, with which the
largest share of trade was previously conducted.
It is recommended that the league of nations, or the
larger nations interested in this problem, send to
Poland a commission consisting of recognized in-

dustrial, educational, agricultural, economic, and
vocational experts, which should remain there as
long as necessary to examine the problem at its
source.

18. This commission should devise a plan by
which the Jews in Poland can secure the same eco-
nomic and social opportunities as are enjoyed by
their coreligionists in other free countries. A new
Polish constitution is now in the making. The gen-
erous scope of this national instrument has already
been indicated by the special treaty with the allied
and associated powers, in which Poland has affirmed
its fidelity to the principles of liberty and justice
and the rights of minorities, and we may be certain
that Poland will be faithful to its pledge, which is
so conspicuously in harmony with the nation's best
traditions. A new life will thus be opened to the
Jews and it will be the task of the proposed commis-
sion to fit them to profit thereby and to win the
same appreciation gained by their coreligionists
elsewhere as a valued asset to the commonwealths
in which they r.eside. The friends of the Jews in
America, England, and elsewhere who have al-
ready evinced such great interest in their welfare,
will enthusiastically grasp the opportunity to co-
operate in working put any good solution that' such
a commission may propound. The fact that it may
take one or two generations to reach the goal must
not be discouraging.

19. All citizens of Poland should realize
that they must live together. They can not
be divorced from each other by force or by
any court of law. When this idea is once
thoroughly comprehended, every eflFort will
necessarily be directed toward a better un-
derstanding and the amelioration of existing
conditions, rather than toward augmenting
antipathy and discontent. The Polish nation
must see that its worst enemies are those
who encourage this internal strife. A house
divided against itself can not stand. There
must be but one class of -citizens in Poland,
all members of which enjoy equal rights and
render equal duties.

Respectfully submitted.

HENRY MORGENTHAU.

Footnotes

' See footnote No. 4.

^ When the Austrians surrendered Lemberg to the Ukrain-
ians, the liberation of the city became a Polish national pos-
tulate to such a degree that women and children took part
in the fighting in the streets. The Jews of Lemberg pro-
claimed themselves neutral and organized their own security —
guards armed with carabines. The conviction that the "Jews
were fighting on the side of the Ukrainians was based on a
series of incidents and misunderstandings. The Ukrainians
wore blue and yellow badges on their sleeves, which were
often mistaken for the blue and white badges of the Jews ;
the "Ukrainskie Slowo" published that "the Jews are with
us" ; the Ukrainian communique of the 18th November, 1918,
reported that the Polish attack "met with the fierce opposi-
tion of the Jewish militia." The falsity of these reports be-
came known too late. About 2,000 criminals let out of prison
by the Austrians and the Ukrainians tried to get arms and
uniforms in order to plunder. There were, therefore, rob-
bers in Austrian, Ukrainian and Polish uniforms. In street
skirmishes it was not always easy to discern which were sol-
diers and which were bandits, and when the Jewish guards
shot at bandits clothed in Polish uniforms, the opinion was
confirmed that the Jews shot at Poles.

' General Jadwin reports : "Five deaths are the only fatal-
ities from mob violence in Congress Poland discovered or
reported to us since the establishment of a stable government
in the Republic." Sir Rumbold says : "The excesses against
the Jews can be divided from a geographical point of view
into two categories : those which were perpetrated m Poland
proper, in the course of which eighteen Jews lost their lives,
and those which took place in the war zones which, in Novem-
ber, 1918, included Lemberg, and where the majority of the
murders occurred. Sir Stuart Samuel estimates the total
number of lives lost at not less than 348 so that 330 Jews
were killed in the war zone." Congress Poland that part of
the partitioned country that was under Russian domination,
has a population of approximately 12,000,000. (Congress
Poland was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and
under the title of the Kingdom of Poland was to have a
separate parliament in Warsaw and only connected with
Russia through having the same king. Subsequently the
whole of Congress Poland was incorporated within Russia
and called the Province of the Vistula in order that the
name of Poland should disappear from the map of Europe).

' Immediately after the proclamation of . Poland's inde-
pendence the Jews came forward with national demands
which they had never made while Poland was a part of the
annexing states: Russia, Germany and Austria. They ad-
dressed themselves to the Paris Conference with these de-
mands, which were partially taken into account in the treaty
on the national minorities. The Jews demanded their own
national State in Palestine, and in Poland complete equality

with other citizens of the State and, in addition Mt'O"*'
autonomy with their own Jewish National Assembly for the
direction of Jewish affairs in Poland, presenting candidates
for a Minister of Jewish affairs, and administrating mde-
pendently Jewish schools and institutions. These demands
found an echo in the speeches of Jewish deputies in the Polish
Parliament on the 24th, 27th and 28th February in the decla-
rations of the deputies Perlmutter, Prylucki and Grunbaura.
The Poles agreed without reserve to the demand for equal
rights as in harmony with Poland's traditions, but rejected
the demand for national autonomy regarding it as the desire
to create a State within a State, and a demand in opposition
to equal rights, as the Jews would then possess more rights
than the rest of the citizens.

''Poland has always shown complete religious tolerance,
and equal rights for all citizens has always been the perma-
nent postulate of all parties. Under Russian rule in Poland
the Jews obtained equal rights, thanks to the Poles. Alexan-
der Wielopolski, when he obtained in 1862 from Alexander II.-
full administrative authority for Poland, profited by it to
proclaim and establish the equal rights of Jews. The Polish
provincial Diet in Poznania asked for equal rights for Jews
in 1847, and the Polish Diet in Lemberg voted it in 1868, im-
mediately after obtaining the autonomy of Galicia. The Poles
were therefore painfully impressed that the the moment of
Poland's uprising the Jews, ignoring Polish factors, ad-
dressed themselves to Paris for guarantees of their rights in
reborn Poland. In "A Brief Outline of Polish History,"
issued in 1919 by the Polish Encyclopeadic Publications Com-
mittee, this explanation is given: "The ukase of March 26,

1861, granted to the Kingdom a separate Council of State,
the autonomy of the governments, districts and towns, the
direction of the public worship and of. education, and finally a
reform of the University system. Marquis Alexander Wie-
lopolski, who was known for his anti-German and anti-Aus-
trian ideas, a sincere partisan of a loyal entente with Russia,
was made director of the Public worship. But. on the other
hand, the government closed the Agricultural Society which
had grouped round it the moderate patriots, surnaraed the
"Whites," who were opposed to all armed rising. The Mar-
quis, unable to get on with the imperial lieutenants, sent in
his resignation. Called to Petersburg, he used all his po-
litical ability in trying to get back ior Poland its complete
autonomy. He came back to Warsaw during the summer of

1862, with the new Imperial Lieutenant, the Grand Duke Con-
stantine, and charged with full powers. Created vice-presi-
dent of the Administration Council, which meant head of a
civil government, he set to work immediately to accomplish
his projects: equal rights for the Jews and the reform of the
educational system." In other words Poland had only this
single opportunity to give the Poles liberties and at once
took advantage of it. After the uprising of 1863, Russia re-
nounced the Polish decree and never again allowed Poland
freedom of action in regard to the treatment of Jews.

10

II.

The Jadwin and Johnson Report

American Commission to Negotiate Peace
Mission to Poland,

Paris, October 31, 1919.

American commission to negotiate peace.

Gentlemen: 1. The mission to Poland (consisting
of Mr. Henry Morgenthau, Brig. Gen. Edgar Jad-
win, and Mr. Homer H. Johnson) was named for the
purpose of carrying out and investigation of ques-
tions the relations between the Jewish and the non-
Jewish elements in the Republic. Accompanied by
its working personnel, the mission remained in Po-
land from July 13, 1919, to September 13, 1919, and
visited the scenes of the most widely reported ex-
cesses, studied economic conditions in the local
centers of production and distribution, consulted
Polish statesmen and Jewish men of affairs, ob-
served living conditions among the common people,
associated with officers of the army, and, consider-
ing always the historical environment influencing
the nature, aims, and disposition of the Polish Na-
tion, endeavored to arrive at a just understanding
of the present relations between the component ele-
ments of the Republic. The mission owes its thanks
to Gen. Pilsudski, the chief of state, Mr. Paderewski,
president of the council of ministers, and to the
Polish authorities in general for the facilities con-
tributed toward the execution of its task, and is
also indebted to Mr. Hugh Gibson, American minis-
ter to Poland, for his aid. In all localities visited,
the Jewish communities extended to the mission
their full confidence and co-operation.

It should be borne in mind that most of the
time of the mission in Poland was taken up
in the examination of complaints made by or
in behalf of Jewish citizens of Poland, and
that the material as to excesses is largely
based on ex parte statements. While it was
the original intention of the mission to give
the Polish Government an opportunity for
detailed rebuttal, the relatively small extent
of the excesses themselves, as compared with
the largest elements contributing to anti-Semi-
tism, and the importance of a remedy, seemed
to make such rebuttal unnecessary. Within
the boundaries of Congress Poland only 18
Jews lost their lives, while in the whole terri-
tory now controlled or occupied by the Polish
Republic the grand total of deaths from ex-
cesses in which anti-Semitism was a factor
has not exceeded 300.

We were able to arrive at our conclusions from
the data furnished by Jewish sources, from answers
to specific questions addressed to various Polish
ministries, from many conferences with other Po-

lish citizens, and from utterances in the Polish press,
and believe that those sources sufficiently disclosed
the nature and causes of anti-Jewish disturbances
without further pro-Polish evidence.

After the return of the mission to Paris its mem-
bers were unable to consu-lt together on account of
the absence of Gen. Jadwin on other duty in south-
ern Russia. Mr. Morgenthau before leaving Paris
submitted a report representing his views of the
situation, and the other members, in his absence,
have prepared these considerations,- which, while
differing but slightly from Mr.. Morgenthau's, have
been put in the form of a complete report as leading
up to conclusions which differ from those of Mr.
Morgenthau.

2. P9lish opinion characterizes the tradi-
tional attitude of Poland toward the Jews as
one of tolerance. When the Jews in western
Europe fell a prey to persecutions induced by
the fresh wave of fanaticism incident to the
Crusades, they migrated in large numbers to
Poland as a place of refuge, where the Jewish
communities received numerous special privi-
leges, and possessed almost complete local
government. This internal independence
lasted until early in the nineteenth century,
when it was finally so reduced as to apply to
religious and educational matters only. The
memory of former independence within the
limits of the State plays a considerable role -
in the present aspirations of certain Jewish
parties for autonomy with the right to receive
and expend a pro rata part of State revenue.
The traditional concentration of the Jews in
their communities, due to the necessity of
maintaining close connection with the syna-
gogue, has given further impetus to the spirit
of separatism and cleavage from the rest of
the population, which aggravates the Jewish
question at the moment. It is frequently al-
leged that even in the Middle Ages Jewish
separatism, commercial competition and ac-
quisitiveness aroused a certain irritation
among the Polish masses, which has persisted
as an inherited prejudice to the present day.

With the accession of Nicholas 1 (1825), perse-
cution of the Jews began with the official sanction
of the Russian Empire, and continued until Nicho-
las was succeeded by Alexander II. Tn harmony
with the latter's liberal policy, decrees were pub-
lished in 1862 completely emancipating the Jews,
but after the reaction from the insurrection of 1863,
in which, at least in Warsaw, many Jews fought
shoulder to shoulder with the Poles, these laws be-
came a dead letter. Though frequently invoked as

11

a proof i)t Polish tolerance, the\- have provided since
that time no e^>ential guarantees of Jewish rights.^
During the second half of the nineteenth century
conditions in Poland were further complicated by
the rigid enforcement of the pale of settlement. The
original prohibition to settle outside the pale had
been so modified under Alexander II as to allow
wealthy Jewish merchants, Jewish holders of uni-
versity degrees, and Jewish artisans, to reside in the
interior provinces of Russia. This concession was
counterbalanced by the laws of May. 1882, forbid-
ding Jews to reside in the country districts and small
towns of the pale, and crowding them into the cities
where their coreligionists were already congested.
At the same time, the expulsion of Jewish artisans
from Moscow aggravated the abnormal concentra-
tion of this section. The result of these conditions
was a sharpening of competition between Jew and
non-Jew in the districts where both elements lived
side by side. The lack of opportunity for the Jew
to engage in production drove him into small trad-
ing, a business already overflowing and incapable
of providing a livelihood for even a small number
of newcomers. Even before the war, the mass of
Polish Jewry had to struggle for their daily bread,
and in addition to commercial rivalry, popular re-
sentment against them was further accentuated by
their religious separatism and their differences in
dress, dietary habits, and Sabbath observances.

3. To the basic factors of the present situation
must be added the cross-currents of factional aspirai-
tions and international intrigue caused by the Great
War. During the German occupation of Poland,
the Germanic character of the Yiddish vernacular
and the readiness of certaia Jewish elements to
enter into relations with the winning side induced
the enemy to employ Jews as agents for various
- purposes and to grant the Jewish population not
only exceptional protection, but also the promise of
autonomy. It is alleged that the Jews were active
in speculation in foodstuffs, which was encouraged
by the armies of occupation with a view to facilitat-
ing export to Germany and Austria. Notwithstand-
ing the patriotic attitude assumed by many promi-
nent Jews, the number of Hebrews employed by
the German forces and occasional cases of denuncia-
tion by Jews added fuel to the flame of prejudice.
A sensitive Polish nationalism has been resentful
of any self-assertion fronj a' minority whose verj-^
language recalls the heavy hand of the oppressor.

It is not merely for his alleged German sympa-
thies that the Jew is regarded with antipathy, but
also for his supposed relations with the Bolsheviks.
The Polish masses and soldiery who have come in
contact with bolshevism class the Jews as its sup-
porters, and at Pinsk, Lida, and Wilna, where seri-
ous excesses occurred concurrently with military
operations, their argument was in each case ad-
vanced by local military authorities in partial ex-
planation of the occurrences. It is also often as-
serted that the chiefs of the Bolshevist movement
in Russia are Jews of Poland or Lithuania and there
is no doubt that they played a prominent part in

the Bolshevik government ot such cities as Wilna,
Lida, and Minsk before the capture of these cities
hv the Polish Army. The program of the Jewish
Socialist belonging' to the Bund Party is also ad-
duced as a proof of Jewish sympathy with the Bol-
sheviks, though since the Russian revolution the
Bund has allied itself with the moderate element
(Mensheviki) among the Russian Socialists. It
may be questioned whether undue arbitrary general-
ization has not been resorted to by elements hostile
to the Jew in defining the Jewish political stand-
point. It is no more fair to brand all Jews as Bol-
sheviks because some of them support the Soviets
than to class all Poles as Jew-baiters because some
of their military forces or of their lawless civil
elements have occasionally been guilty of depreda-
tions and violence.

The alien sympathies attributed to the Jew
vary with the racial problems in different
sections of the country. Under the Austrian
regime the situation of the Jews in Galicia
had been favorable. But when the Haps-
burg monarchy crumbled, and the struggle
broke out between Pole and Ukrainian for
the possession of Lemberg and eastern Ga-
licia, the neutrality professed by a portion of
the Jewish population resulted ' in increased
hostility toward the Jew. The waiting game
dictated at this juncture by the Jewish sense
of expediency was interpreted by the Poles as
Ukrainian partisanship. The disorders of
November 21 to 23 in Lemberg became, like
the excesses in Lithuania, a weapon of foreign
anti-Polish propaganda. The press bureau
of the Central Powers, in whose interest it
lay to discredit the Polish Republic before
the world, permitted the publication of
articles like that in the "Neue Freie Presse"
of November 30, 1918, in which an eyewitness
estimated the number of victims between
2,500 and 3,000, although the extreme number
furnished by the local Jewish committee
was 76.

As the result of the war, the natural depression
of industry and commercial life has also become a
peculiar incident of anti-Semitism. The use of the
country as a battlefield by foreign armies, who re-
quisitioned and plundered all available material,
who made it difficult for the Jewish merchant, first,
to "Secure goods with which to deal, and second, to
charge other than high prices for them. When the
merchant is able to secure a stock of goods the very
fact that he has them in his possession, and that he
is compelled to charge abnormal prices, tends to the
popular conviction that he is a profiteer. The pre-
vailing monetary insecurity also renders bart^
necessary and merchandising difficult, while the
Jewish merchant, thus hampered in his business, is
met by the increasing prejudice growing out of the
abnormal conditions of war under which his trading
must be carried on.

Some Poles have stated that the Jews permit a
different standard of business deportment in deal-

12

ings with non-Jews, and that they are thus, outside
of passing conditions, responsible for existing preju-
dice. This is vigorously denied by the Jews. Fur-
thermore, the use of economic questions with racial
attachments for political arguments contributes to
perpetuating an issue which, as a result of passing
circumstances, should disappear with renewed eco-
nomic activity.

4. The modern Polish State consists, or may con-
sist when its boundaries are fixed, of five distinct
sections : Congress Poland, Poznania, Galicia (east-
ern and western), and portions of Lithuania and
White Russia, Minsk, Grodno, Volhynia, and, part
of Vitebsk. The proportion of Jews varies from
less than 1 per cent in the immediate vicinity of
the Prussian boundary to 75 per cent in the White
Russian city of Pinsk. Out of 441 census divisions,
there are about 13 in which the Jews exceed 20 per
cent of the population. The old Russian provinces
of Minsk and Volhynia have the largest percentage
of Jewish inhabitants. In general, the percentage
of Jews increases toward the eastward, and with
the exception of Warsaw, Lodz, and some smaller
cities in Congress Poland, is largest in the region
running northeast from Warsaw to Wilna, and in
the district extending south from Minsk across the
Prypec toward the Dniester River. This concentra-
tion is due to the Russian laws confining the Jews
within the Provinces making up the river systems of
the Dnieper and the Niemen, and to the gradual
eviction of the Jews from interior Russian cities
into this so-called pale of settlement. Except in
the cities, the proportion of Jews in Congress Po-
land does not exceed 10 per cent of the population,
am' with the cities included about 15 per cent is
Jewish.

The percentage of Poles in Congress Poland, ex-
cept in the cities where Jews have settled, rises
about 75 per cent. West of Posen, toward the
Prussian boundary, the proportion of Poles shades
off to 25 per cent and less. A fairly distinct belt of
Polish-speaking people extends north to Danzig
and the edge of Pomerania. Owing to the extreme
variations in the Russian census of 1897 and 1909
for Lithuania and the Ukraine, it is difficult to give
accurate figures as to the Polish population east of
the Bug River. In Lithuania, with the exception of
Wilna and environs, the proportion of Poles no-
where passes 25 per cent. In Wilna itself the Poles
are variously estimated at 20 to 43 per cent, with
some present claims as high as 55 per cent. In
White Russia, on the contrary, the 'Polish popula-
tion is extremely small, especially in the Province
of Minsk, where it does not exceed 10 per cent, al-
though the city of Minsk has about 25 per cent. In
western Galicia, centering about Cracow, the Poles
reach 75 per cent, while in eastern Galicia they share
the territory about equally with the Ukrainians,
though retaining considerable superiority in the city
of Lemberg itself. There has been a distinct east-
ward drift to Polish emigration, so that Polish in-
filtrations appear as far east as Kiev and the Prov-
ince of Mohilev. Owing to peculiar agrarian condi-

tions, the Poles before the war held nearly half of all
real estate in Lithuania and Ukraine.

It will thus be seen that the percentage of popula-
tion in the various sections of what is now Poland,
or what may be Poland, adds to the general com-
plexity of the influences entering into the problem
of anti-Semitism. Naturally the relations in the
eastern districts now held by Poland are affected,
not only by the percentage of Jews, but by the small
proportion of Polish inhabitants in these sections.
The attitude of the various elements of the popula-
tion and the play of sentiment as to the political
future of the country further contribute to this
puzzling complexity. In spite of considerable agita-
tion, no serious difficulty exists in Posen, and even
in Congress Poland there is little disturbance of
fundamental relations. But in view of the uncer-
tainty as to whether the regions in the East are
to be Polish, Russian, or independent, it is readily
seen that the relation of the Jew to the eventual
political disposition of these territories is still an
irritating element. These same problems are to
some extent inherent in every other country where
the Jewish character and habits develop a racial
solidarity, necessarily accompanied by an economic
and social intermingling with the other elements of
the population.

5. The Jewish situation is rendered more
difficult by the efforts of certain malicious
German influences to further their eastern
projects by discrediting Poland financially
and otherwise. It is not to the interest of
the German State to allow Poland to become
a powerful and prosperous competitor, since
Poland is more favorably situated to act as a
center of exchange between Russia and the
west. There are also conservative elements
among Russian statesmen who are equally
anxious to prevent foreign financial aid to Po-
land and are using criticism of the Polish
State as a weapon to forestall the assistance
of the allied and associated powers. If Po-
land is to become a firmly established State,
the needs of the Republic must be considered
from the angle of Polish national aspirations
and rights, and not simply on the basis of the
purposes of its temporarily paralyzed neigh-
bors to the east and west.

In common with all free Governments of
the world, Poland is faced with the danger of
the political and international propaganda to
which the war has given rise. The coloring,
the suppression, and the invention of news,
the subornation of newspapers by many dif-
ferent methods, and the poisoning by secret
influences of the instruments affecting public
opinion, in short, all the methods of malevo-
lent propaganda are a menace from which
Poland is a notable suflferer. This applies to
propaganda both at home and from abroad.
While the Polish press as a whole may not
be charged with irresponsibility, it has in
general gone to the extreme of political pro-

13

priety, and many of its organs nave passed
far beyond that limit, to the great detriment

of their country,

6. Poland is beset by the confusion of ideas and
the degeneration of popular morale, caused by
decades of political tyranny and made acute by five
years of war. For over 100 years all sections of
Poland have been ruled by despotisms of varying
severity, and the people at large have been accus-
tomed to identify the Government not with the
manifestation of majority opinion, but with personal
rule by ukase and decree. The Jews suffer from the
fact that the Polish Government substituting popu-
lar government for despotic rule, lacks the will or
the power to protect them, and have been ready to
invoke external aid in order to exact from the
Polish authorities protection of themselves not as a
minority, but because of their racial allegiance.
Some representatives of the Jewish national move-
ment who have been conspicuously active refuse to
subordinate the Jewish question to the general
needs of the Polish State. The fault in this regard
does not lie entirely on the Jewish side, since the
question once raised was eagerly picked up by the
National Democratic Party. The voluntary separa-
tion of the Jew from purely Polish interests has led,
in localities where other problems of nationality
exist, to arbitrary identification of the Jews wit'..
anti-Polish elements. So long as nationality is an
issue, the Jew who does not declare himself Polish
is regarded as the ally of any visible alien factor.
On the other hand, in view of the uncertainty of the
final disposition of White Russia, Lithuania, and
Galicia, the difficulties besetting the Jews in these
regions have been undeniably very great. Yet,
since the Jews are enjoying the protection of the
growing Polish State, the Poles claim that they owe
active personal support to the Government that in-
sures them liberty and commercial opportunity.
The numerical inferiority of the Jews in what is un-
deniably Poland has at the same time proved no
check to their political assertiveness. The oppor-
tunity to profit by an occasional balance of power
claimed to excuse the maintenance of a Jewish na-
tional party does not appear to justify perpetuating
so great an irritation and such a separation of the
Jews from the customary divisions of modern
politics.

We may here refer with propriety to the
report of the inter-allied commission on Po-
land, of which Prof. R'. H. Lord and Gen.
Kernan were the American members, and to
whose statements on the Polish problem it is
desired to invite special attention. The ac-
count of the Jewish parties supplied by the
Italian member of that commission has been
found very helpful and substantially accur-
ate. He invited the most important parties
to submit any extensions or corrections which
they desired to make, but no further informa-
tion was supplied. As hereafter appears,
most of the questions raised and of the sug-
gestions made in the report on Poland have

been met, in our judgment, by tne free ac-
ceptance of the minorities treaty by the Po-
lish Government and people.

\\'e have, however, found some evidence of a
disposition both in Poland and abroad to keep alive
the controversy on the possible theory that focusing
attention upon Poland will promote better treat-
ment of the Jew. We feel that this doctrine, of con-
troversialism is founded on extremely dubious
grounds, and that there should be no Jewish prob-
lem, aside from the general responsibility to the
fundamental provisions which the Poles have agreed
shall become part of their policy toward minorities.
The ideal should be to have one and only one class
of citizens politically with complete freedom in re-
ligious matters.

7. The question of popular education presents
some possible difficulty. From American experi-
ence it is concluded that the public school, with
universal instruction in the national vernacular, is
one of the strongest forces toward the creation of
a homogeneous body of citizens, speaking one lan-
guage and expressing themselves on the basis of a
common cotnplex of social and political notions
however much they differ on religious and cultural
questions. In order that the Jew may fully enjoy
his privileges and faithfull)" fulfill his obligations as
a citizen, he must understand them in the same
sense as his Polish neighbor. It is by means of
public schools that Poland will lose its approximate
85 per cent of illiterates, and teach its people, not
only common school subjects, but also the great
principles of liberty and the rights of man, and by
raising the level of popular knowledge arrive at a
point where it can draw its State officials from the
people at large, who will, by association in their
school years, have acquired a common understand-
ing impervious to propaganda or prejudice. While,
therefore, the adoption of the treaty was essential
to the integrity of Poland, it will in carrying out
the educational paragraphs be well for Poles and
Jews to keep in mind American experience in public
school development, and carefully to weigh the
question, whether the permanency of the separate
school plan will be advisable.

8. As to specific cases of violence leading to loss
of life we invite attention to article 6 of Mr. Mor-
genthau's report, where the main facts are stated.
Some additional considerations must be further
recorded and especially that the excesses mostly
took place either when the Republic was in process
of organization or under the stress of military oper-
ations. For example, the outbreak in Kielce oc-
curred on the day of the armistice, November 11,
1918. A Jewish meeting called in support of Jewish
nationalism, which was easily rumored to be in op-
position to Polish national independence, was
broken up with fatal results to four people and in-
jury to many others just after the city had been
evacuated by the Austrian troops and before the
Polish authorities existed to organize a service of
security. At Lemberg, while the outbreaks occurred
a little later, November 21-23, 1918, it was at the

14

end of hostilities between the Polish and Ukrainian
elements of the population.

The Pinsk outrage, April 5, 1919, was 30
days after the capture of the town from the
Bolsheviks by the Poles, but was a purely
military affair. The town commander with
judgment unbalanced by fear of a bolshevik
uprising of which he had been forewarned by
two Jewish soldier informers sought to ter-
rorize the Jewish population (about 75 per
cent of the whole) by the execution of 35
Jewish citizens without investigation or trial,
by imprisoning and beating others and by
wholesale threats against all Jews. No share
in this action can be attributed to any military
official higher up, to any of the Polish civil
officials, or to the few Poles resident in that
district of White Russia.

The Czestochowa riots on May 27, 1919, while
based on the supposed shooting of a Polish soldier
by a Jew, was not connected with a military opera-
tion and occurred after both military and civil gov- ■
ernment had been established. Only after five
deaths was the outbreak arrested. These five deaths
are the only fatalities from mob violence in Con-
gress Poland discovered or reported to us since the
establishment of a stable government in the Re-
public."

The military operations of the Polish Army in
the taking of Lida (April 17, 1919), of Wilna (April
21, 1919), and of Minsk (August 8, 1919) in consid-
eration of the facts of its organization, that it was
still poorly organized, unequipped, underofficered
and undisciplined would not have been so noticeably
irregular even though civilian deaths were consid-
erable and robberies large, except for the fact that
those killed and robbed were practically all Jews
Nor is it explained by the fact that most of the
shops in those cities were Jewish. The fact that
there were some non-Jewish establishments and
that none of them were disturbed shows an intelli-
gent and intentional discrimination on the part of
the lawless element in the army disclosing a racial
antipathy made more patent by the desire to rob and
pillage, which was apparently felt not to be wrong
or at least not to be severely punished by superiors.
In Wilna there was active street fighting for three
days, and while the army lost 33 the civilian loss
was 65. But the civilians were all Jews, and many
others were thereafter deported and subject to hard-
ships which it is hard to justify by military practice.
In support of the conviction that there had been
active sympathy with the Bolsheviks by Jews and
sniping by them during the street fighting we had
many statements of eye witnesses presented to us.
There can be no doubt that in a highly charged at-
mosphere there was quite enough fault on both sides
to explain the adherence to the every-day practices
of Russian civil warfare as it is reported to us in this
almost civil strife on Russian territory No one
would attempt to justify it. Gen. Jadwin was pres-
ent at the taking of Minsk and a personal witness

to the strenuous efforts of the military authorities
toward preventing acts of violence. The results
showed definite progress among the military in the
discipline of the army in the conception of their
duty toward the civilian population and in their
ability to carry it out. Proportionately to the popu-
lation only about 20 per cent as many were killed
as at Wilna. A large percentage of those were in
the suburbs and out of reach of the military patrols
in the city. Part of those in the town were the re-
sult, according to bystanders' statements, of shots
directed at the entering troops coming from a cer-
tain meeting house in which Jews had congregated,
and five of them were killed. Reported bolshevik
activity and sniping with the desire to rob explain
most of the cases except the reprehensible unbal-
anced conduct of one petty officer who killed nine.
Many of the offenders were arrested and six of them
were sentenced to be shot.

Following the Minsk experience, improvement
was made in the technique of handling patrols so
that further reports from Rowno and Bobruisk, sub-
sequently captured by the Poles, indicate more suc-
cessful precautions aga>inst maltreatment of the
Jewish population.

In practically all of these cases inquiries
have been regularly undertaken by the mili-
tary authorities, by the civil Government of
Poland, and in several by direct Diet com-
mittees. The local civil authorities have also
followed the usual processes of criminal in-
quiry, and the cases are in various stages of
development. In several the inquiry has been
followed by the appropriation of damages to
those who have suffered loss.

Payments had begun to be made in Wilna,
Pinsk, and "Lemberg before our departure
from Poland. If complaints as to slowness
and uncertainty of military and Government
punishment and relief were heard, as they
were, it seemed nevertheless to indicate that
orderly process of government was in opera-
tion. With a state of war in the land and the
many vexing problems incident to Poland's
situation, we could not find substantial
ground of criticism of the methods of pre-
vention and relief for an altogether unhappy
situation. Patience and forbearance must be
administered to all sides of the question, with
honest effort to recover their war-torn coun-
try as soon as possible. It will be a difficult
matter to reassure the citizens of Poland that
the outside world will be as prompt and effi-
cient in doing its duty — to make the world
safe for Poland and all other struggling
democracies.

9. We are of the opinion, in view of the previous
training of the Polish soldiery in the German, Aus-
trian, and Russian Armies, the eastern low valua-
tion of human life, the want of food and clothing
which had accompanied the breaking up of the Cen-
tra! Powers, and the universal tenseness of popular

15

nerves worn by the vicissitudes of war, that the
antagonism felt by the Polish military toward the
Jews and resulting in depredation and violence
against them is not a matter of surprise, reprehen-
sible and regrettable as it is. The habits of mili-
tary warfare still obtaining in the civil war in Rus-
sia, and these military excesses in Poland, aggra-
vated as they were by civilian mobs, thoroughly
justified the fear and anxiety expressed by many
Jews lest the Poles had adopted Czarist and bol-
shevik precedents of solving any question, including
that of Jewish prejudice, by a process of terror and
extermination. It is to the credit of the Polish State
that it has apparently passed through this crisis
of organization, though still under the baneful in-
fluence of active warfare, without realizing this sin-
ister expectation. We were assured by many repre-
sentative Jewish delegations that while they were
disturbed by the anti-Jewish feeling still incon-
veniently and unjustly exhibited, they did not fear
for their lives or liberty; that they recognize their
full duty as Polish citizens with all the responsi-
bilities and privileges that pertain thereto; that all
citizens are subject to the rule of the majority in
which any miiiority must acquiesce, and that the
only remedy beyond this is the appeal to the con-
science of the majority and its sense of justice and
fair play. This uniting in the making, ratification,
and execution of this treaty, with its appeal to the
League of Nations, is a credit to Jew and non-Jew
alike, and barring the accident of an outside con-
flagration, is the best of auguries for Poland's future
success.

10. While it is our opinion that a return to nor-
mal conditions in Poland will remove most of the
danger of the Jewish question, it is recognized that
this process of restoration is not solely dependent
on the good will and exertions jof the Poles them-
selves. The attention of Poland must be diverted
from waging war, and the only means toward this
end is the re-establishment of internal peace in Rus-
sia. Until this result is obtained, Poland remains
with boundaries undetermined, forced to hold and
administer a large territory, the inhabitants of which
as yet have no fixed nationality. As long as Poland
wages war, the Republic is a prey to militaristic
methods and open to the peril of direct action. Un-
til its army is reduced to a peace footing the problem
of overpopulation and underemployment can not be
solved. While a third of the meager income of the
State is expended for military purposes, adequate
attention can not be devoted to internal reconstruc-
tion. Until Russia is at peace Poland lacks her full
field for trade and exchange, and therefore can not
regain her economic equilibrium, while an oppor-
tunity for emigration to an open and liberal Russia
would provide an outlet for the surplus population
of the Republic. With a stable government in Rus-
sia firmly allied in principle with the allied and asso-
ciated powers, an end would be made to the German
intrigue that is seeking to substitute Russia for
Austria-Hungary as a field of exploitation and ac-
cordingly strives to discredit Poland as a dangerous
competitor. In fact, protection afforded mrnorities

such as before- us in this investigation may well
bring the Russian condition where this problem is
the protection of the majority against a minority
based on a difference of social philosophy and wield-
ing power by seizure of the instruments of war and
by the use of most elementary forms of force and
fear. Is not the duty of the nations as clear to
determine the rule of the majority against des-
potism, whether one or many, thus preserving do-
mestic tranquillity as well as freedom from foreign
invasion? Is not the effect of domestic disorder in
Russia upon Poland and upon the peace of the world
quite as important a subject for regulation by the
nations as in the limitation upon the majority's
treatment of minorities? Is not the solidarity of
nations shown quite as much by one as the other,
and are they not both requisite for future peace?
The foundation of an enduring government in Rus-
sia depends on the certainty that no minority,
whether autocratic or bolshevistic, shall ever be
able to exploit the inertia of the masses in over-
throwing any system of democracy that may be es-
tablished within its boundaries. It is to the interest
of the world that this internal security shall be per-
petuated, and the rise of a powerful democracy on
the eastern frontier of Poland will insure the safety
and freedom of action of the Republic.

In short, once the military threat against
Poland is removed and the territorial uncer-
tainty of the RepubHc is ended, the nation
will be able to concentrate its energies on in-
ternal problems and, by the course of natural
development, create a governmental system
insuring equality, protection, and prosperity
to all elements of its population. The mis-
sion thoroughly believes that Poland has the
raw materials of citizenship quite equal to
this accomplishment.

11. By way of summary, we find that beginning
with the armistice, about November 11, 1918, and
for six months and more during the establishment of
orderly government in Poland, many regrettable
incidents took place throughout both Congress Po-
land and the regions the future of which is still in
doubt. The occurrences in Congress Poland were
not so serious in number of deaths, but there have
been violent collisions accompanied by riots, beat-
ings, and other assaults which are apparently trace-
able in large part to anti-Jewish prejudice. In every
case they have been repressed by either the military
or the civil authorities, but only after grievous re-
sults. In the territory occupied or invaded by Po-
lish trooops, civilian mobs have followed the sol-
diery, and the two elements have engaged in rob-
bery of shops and dwellings, and, in cases where re-
sistance was oflfered, in assaulting and killing the
owners or occupants. The circumstances of some
of these incidents have been aggravated ty intoxica-
tion due to the looting of liquor stores, with the
usual adjuncts of criminal irresponsibility and mob
rage. We believe that none of these excesses were
instigated or approved by any responsible govern-
mental authority, civil or military. We find, on the
other hand, that the history and the attitude of the

16

Jews, complicated by abnormal economic and poli-
tical conditions produced by the war, have fed the
flame of anti-Semitism at a critical moment. It is
believed, however, that the gradual amelioration of
conditions during the last 11 months gives great
promise for the future of the Polish Republic as a
stable democracy.

12. In spite of the existing anti-Semitism arising
from very diverse factors we are convinced that re-
ligious differences as such play therein a relatively
slight role, and that the Polish nation is disposed
to religious tolerance and self-control in religious
disagreements. The ending of the war, the removal
of external menace, and the revival of industry will
reduce the present common irritation caused by
abnormal conditions.

Jewish business men have also assured us that
with the restoration of trade, industry, and banking,
the Poles will cease to employ economic pressure
as a political weapon.

13. In addition to the disposition toward tolerance
evinced in the presence of violent party controversy
and active propaganda from abroad, Poland has
accepted the minorities clause of the treaty of Ver-
sailles,, guaranteeing to all citizens security of life
and property and equal protection of the laws. De-
spite dissatisfaction with some stipulations of this
treaty, a determination has been expressed by prom-
inent leaders of even the extremes in all political
camps to execute it faithfully.

14. The duties of the outside world toward Po-
land are :

(o) To establish the territorial extent of the
Polish State. Should any of the eastern coun-
try which contains the largest proportion of
Jews, revert to Russia, the problem thus
transferred can be dealt with by the League
of Nations.

(b) To protect Poland from the menace of
external interference by the application of
article 10 of the covenant of the League of
Nations.

(c) To further by means of judiciously ad-
ministered external help the recovery of Po-
land from five years of war. This material
aid, in the nature of food, clothing, and raw
materials, should not be gratuitously fur-
nished or so distributed as to overtax the na-
tional credit or to pauperize the population.
In accordance with President Wilson's speech
of January 8, 1918, Poland should be freed
from the limitation of all economic barriers
and raised to a position where it can profit by
the quality of trade conditions to be estab-
lished among nations. Since no country can
be a good financial risk without domestic
tranquillity and freedom from invasion, the
fear of which may lead to over expenditure
and competitive armament, this security
should be provided for the good of Poland
and the peace of the world. While we are
convinced that Poland will abide by its obli-
gations to preserve order at home, the pro-

'See footnote No. 5 after Morgenthau Report.

tection against external interference is the
duty of the League of Nations. With politi-
cal security, industrial peace, and an open
market with no foreig'n debt not offset by for-
eign receivables, Poland, safeguarded by the
League of Nations and abundantly provided
as she is with natural assets in property and
man power, becomes an excellent commercial
risk for foreign capitaK

(d) To study the question of over population or
under industrialization, not at all local to Poland but
intimately connected with its future. It is not
healthy for Poland to pursue a policy of summer
emigration to other countries, nor is it desirable that
it should continue a heavy emigration to America
and elsewhere. It is a process from which the
nation is still suffering, since it tends to take the
strong and leave the less reliant. Furhermore,
with the present development of the world, and the
beginning of new thoughts in the development of
nationalism, if emigration from Poland is to be
necessary, the question as to whither and under
what conditions it shall be directed becomes pe-
culiarly subject to international solution.

If Poland by her own initiative, or through out-
side aid, can so speed up and direct her own indus-
trial policy as to absorb the potential labor supply,
the Republic may solve the question under new con-
ditions of political and economic freedom.

(e) To further the rapid development of Polish
education. The safety of the masses from exploita-
tion through the sophistries of monarchism or of
anarchism depends on the degree of enlightenment
they possess. It is therefore to the advantage of
the League of Nations to see instituted a campaign
of universal education toward a general understand-
ing of the great ideals of democracy and for the pro-
tection of peoples against the agitator or the reac-
tionary who deals in slogans that appeal to any
populace untrained to estimate them at their proper
value.

(/) To guarantee to Poland the disinterested coun-
sel of the allied democracies based on their previous
experience. Together with the other free peoples
of the world, Poland must henceforth grapple, not
only with abuses of the outworn autocratic system,
but with political corruption, graft, party degen-
eracy, and yellow journalism joined with paid prop-
aganda. 'The opportunity of the League of Nations
for the comparative study of democratic methods
and policies, reinforced by common aims, by the
full development of international feeling and the
free exchange of free ideas, will react not only
upon Poland, but to the general advantage of the
entire world. The greatest need at this crisis is the
domestic and international application of general
principles of democratic government tested by use
and beaten out on the anvil of experience. Its high-
est and broadest attribute is that force shall give
way to thought — the rule of reason rather than the
reign of terror. Respectfully submitted.

EDGAR JADWIN,
Brigadier General, United States Army.

HOMER H. JOHNSON.

17

The Jc-n.'isli situation is rendered more difficult by
the efforts of certain malicious German influences to
further their eastern projects by discrediting Poland
financially and otherwise. It is not to the interest of
the German State to alloiv Poland to become a power-
ful and prosperous competitor, since Poland is more
favorably situated to act as a center of exchange be-
tween Russia and the west. There are also conserva-
tive elements among Russian statesmen, who are equal-
iv anxious to prevent foreign financial aid to Poland
and are using criticism of the Polish States as a weapon
to forestall the assistance of the allied and associated
potvers. If Poland is to become a firmly established
State, the needs of the Republic must be considered
from the angle of Polish national aspirations and
rights, and not simply on the ba^is of the purposes of
its temporarily paralyzed neighbors to the east and
west.

In common with all free Governments of the world,
Poland is faced with the danger of the political and
international propaganda to which the war has given
rise. The coloring, the suppression, and the invention
of news, the subornation of newspapers by many dif-
ferent methods, and the poisoning by secret influences
of the instruments affecting public opinion, in short,
all the methods of malevolent propaganda are a men-
ace from which Poland is a notable sufferer. This
applies to propaganda both at home and from abroad.

— From the Report of General Jadwin
■and H. H. Johnson.

18

The Reports

of the

BRITISH MISSION

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

by
Sir H, Rumbold, British Minister to Poland, in Submitting
the Report of the British Mission to His Government.

Sir H. Rumbold to Earl Curzon

Warsaw, June 2, 1920.

My Lord,

I HAVE the honour to transmit to your Lordship herewith Sir Stuart Samuel's report on his mis-
. sion to Poland to investigate the massacres and general ill-treatment of Jews in this country. Captain
Wright, who was also a member of Sir Stuart Samuel's mission, has submitted a separate report, which I
have likewise the honour to enclose.

When the Germans evacuated Poland in 1918 a civil and military administration had to be set up by
the Poles. It is obvious that this administration could not be anything but defective at first. The execu-
tive was weak and orders issued by the central authorities were frequently not carried but in the provinces.
This absence of authority after four years' of German occupation and iron rule accounts, perhaps, to a cer-
tain degree for the occurrence of excesses against the Jews.

It is also necessary to remember that the discipline of the Polish army was very different from the dis-
cipline of armies before the war. The excesses against the Jews were described as pogroms in the press
of Western Europe, but it can be here remarked that the word "pogrom" is used in a different sense in
Poland from that which it is understood to convey in Western Europe. The word "pogrom" conveys to
the inhabitant of Western Europe massacres or excesses against a portion of the population which are either
organized or countenanced by the authorities. In Poland the word is applied to disturbances in which lives
need not necessarily be lost.

The excesses against the Jews ccin be divided from a geographical point of view into two categories :
those which were perpetrated in Poland proper, in the course of which eighteen Jews lost their lives, and
those which took place in the war zones which, in November, 1918, included Lemberg, and where the ma-
jority of the murders occurred. Sir Stuart Samuel estimates the total number of lives lost at not less than
348, so that 330 Jews were killed in the wai- zone.

19

The character of the excesses differs considerably. In some cases, as at Lemberg, the Polish mob.
worked up by the fighting which took place for the possession of the town, of set purpose attacked many
Jews, killing fifty-two, wounding many more and doing much damage to Jewish property. Excesses against
the Jews on a larger scale also occurred in the following places : at Kielce, Pinsk, Lida, Vilna, Kolbuszowa,
in Galicia, Czenstochowa and Minsk.

In other cases there was a sporadic outbreak causing the death of one or two Jews. In many instances
the excesses took the form of more or less serious assaults on the Jews, such as cutting off beards, throw-
ing out of trains, etc. But in view of the weakness of the central administration and the original want of
discipline in the Polish army, it would appear that the authorities could not be held responsible for the
excesses, and these therefore lose the character of pogroms. If the excesses had been encouraged or organ-
ized by the civil and military authorities the number of victims would probably have been much larger. The
excesses are deplorable in themselves, and it is a matter for regret that the authors have not, so far as is
known to the Legation, been brought to book.

In criticizing the general condition of the Jews in Poland, it is necessary to bear in mind that their
position in this country and the whole of Eastern Europe differs very much from that of their position in
Western Europe. In the East they form a larger percentage of the population, and in many cases they form
a preponderating element in the towns, so that it is only natural that separatism should have manifested
itself. This was strengthened by the fact that the occupations of the Poles differed from those of the Jews.
The Poles were either engaged in war or settled on the land, whilst the Jewish communities devoted
themselves exclusively to commerce. To this must be added the difference of religion and the encourage-
ment of an anti-Semitic feeling, owing to the introduction by the Russians of special anti-Jewish legislation.

It must be further remembered that, under the influence of economic changes and owing to the fact that
since 1832 the Poles have not been allowed to hold posts in the Government, they were gradually obliged to
take to trade, and competition between the Jewish population and the Poles commenced. This competition
became stronger when the Russian Government allowed co-operative and agricultural societies to be started
in Poland. The co-operative movement is becoming very strong and will undoubtedly form an important
factor in the development of economic relations in Poland, so that indirectly it will be bound to affect the
position of the small Jewish trader. *

Sir Stuart Samuel would appear to be mistaken in his appreciation of the part played by the
Jews in the pre-war business relations between Poland and Russia and in the industry of the former
country. Whereas it is true that goods exported from Poland were to a large extent handled by
the Jews, only a small percentage of those goods were actually manufactured by them. The cotton
industry in Lodz owes its development more to the Polish industrial community of German extrac-
tion than to the Jews.

The statement that initiative in business matters was almost entirely a prerogative of the Jews is
exaggerated. A case in point are the co-operaitives, which are exclusively Polish.

The fact of Yiddish being akin to German may have been the reason why the Germans employed
a large number of Jews during their occupation of Poland, although a great many of the Poles with
a good knowledge of German could have been found. There is this difference, however, that the

; Poles only served the Germans by compulsion, as they considered them to be their enemies. This

difference may account for the policy of the Polish Government in relieving many Jews who served
Germany of their offices, and not reinstating them whereas no such procedure was applied in the case
of the Poles. In this respect, it is perhaps interesting to point out that quite a number of Poles
belonging to the so-called "Activists," whose sympathies were pro-German, have not yet obtained

• any posts under the present Polish Government.

The systematic attempt — more especially by provincial authorities — to oust the Jews from their
trade to which Sir Stuart Samuel draws attention is probably due, not so much to the action of these
authorities, as to the exceptional development of the co-operative movement in Poland.

In so far as the Polish Government are able to do so by legislation or proclamations, the boy-
cotting of Jews should be prohibited. But I would point out that it is beyond the power of any Gov-
ernment to force its subjects to deal with persons with whom they do not wish to deal. The boycott
; on various occasions by the Chinese of Japanese merchants is an instance in point.

At the end of his report Sir Stuart Samuel makes various recommendations with a view to improve re-

20

lations between the Poles and the Jews, and I venture to make the following observations with regard to
these recommendations : —

1. The interpretation of the minority clause, article 93 of the Peace Treaty, by Sir Stuart Samuel is
justifiable, and should prove workable if the spirit in which the Jewish community expect the Polish Gov-
ernment to interpret the clause in question is also adopted by the Jewish community with regard to the
Polish State.

Recommendations Nos. 2 to 6 are certainly very appropriate.

As regards No. 9, Sir Stuart Samuel's recommendation is to be strongly supported. I doubt, however,
whether the import of large quantities of raw materials into Poland will improve the situation of the Jewish
population and turn it into producers, as the number of Jewish workmen before the war, when there was
no scarcity of raw materials, was very limited.

As regards No. 11, I would point out that there exists a national loan bank which at the present moment
is playing the part of a State bank, and that there is no differentiation between the Poles and the Jews
regarding the business which can be transacted by that bank.

Polish legislation, which is practically the old Russian legislation, makes no difficulties with regard to the
founding of banks by Jews, so that the latter are able, if they need it, to start banks in which they can have
confidence.

With regard to the final recommendation pointing out the desirability of attaching a secretary who
understands and speaks Yiddish to the staflf of His Majesty's Legation, I venture to observe that his
duties would presumably mainly consist in seeing that article 93 of the Peace Treaty is applied. As the
minority clause was guaranteed by the League of Nations, it would appear desirable, if the Polish Govern-
ment cannot be trusted with the application and carrying out of that article, that the League should super-
vise the execution of that clause, and I would deprecate His Majesty's Government being alone identified
with this question, which would be indirectly the case if the appointment suggested by Sir Stuart Samuel
were made.

The two reports which I transmit herewith are, by the instructions given to the Commission, limited
to Poland, and therefore do not discuss the conditions, of the Jews outside that country. They therefore
unavoidably give a partial and consequently false picture of the conditions of the Jews in Eastern Europe,
for, as one of the reports points out, their condition in Poland, bad as it may have been or may still be, has
been far better than in most of the surrounding countries. Unless all the information on that point is en-
tirely inaccurate, the massacres of Jews by Ukrainian peasant bands can find, in their extent and through-
ness, no parallel except in the massacres of the Armenians in the Turkish Empire. Their very complete-
ness has tended to keep the world in ignorance of them, for towns of many thousand inhabitants almost
wholly Jewish have apparently been wiped out. Similar events have taken place outside the Ukraine proper
and all over Southern Russia during the anarchy of the last three years, and in countries on a higher level of
culture than Southern Russia, such as Hungary and Czecho-Slovakia, persecutions, less sanguinary per-
haps, but very brutal and unjust, have also occurred in the interregnum which followed the armistice.
(These excesses can compete with any that have occurred on Polish territory.)

In all these lands Jews formerly suffered, but like everybody else they suffered from the oppression of
autocratic empires, all of which have now been destroyed. The present-day hardships of the Jews are as
much as anything due to the strong nationalist feelings everywhere aroused by the Great War, and this
perhaps inevitable conflict with national prejudice may prove even worse than the former oppression by
absolute Governments.

The statesmen who drew up the Treaty of Versailles, recognizing the above fact, have imposed spe-
cial stipulations with a view to protect Jews and other minorities. They have done their best to assist the
Jews, but the Jewish congregations in Western Europe should also recognize this aggravation in the state
of their Eastern co-religionists, and reflect how best they can help them.

It is giving the Jews very little real assistance to single' out, as is sometimes done, for reprobation and
protest, the country where they have perhaps suffered least. I have, &c.

H. RUMBOLD.
21

The Samuel Report

ENCLOSURE NO. 1

(Report of Sir Stuart Samuel)
Sir:

I WAS entrusted by His Majesty's Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs with a mission to Poland
on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the primary
object of which was to examine the specific charges
that have been brought against the Poles of having
ill-treated the Jewish population of their country,
including any fresh cases of ill-treatment that might
be brought to my notice whilst my mission lasted.
I was, in particular, instructed to use my best en-
deavours to ascertain in each case where massacres
or outrages of Jews had taken place, where and to
what extent the different grades of Polish authorities
were to blame either for encouraging or culpably
failing to prevent them, or whether they had, taken
all steps in their power to suppress outbreaks and
punish the offenders. The aim of my mission was to
dissipate any misunderstandings that might have
arisen and thus to promote mutual goodwill between
Poland and Great Britain. I was, therefore, in-
structed to make such recommendations to His
Majesty's Government as might occur to me with
the object of establishing greater harmony between
Jewish and other elements of the population as a
satisfactory solution of that problem would obvi-
ously go far to promote the national prosperity. The
mission left London early in September and re-
mained in Poland about three months. I took ex-
cesses against the Jewish population which occurred
in Cracow, Lodz, Vilna, Lida, Pinsk and Lemberg as
typical, and visited those places from Warsaw.
Travelling conditions in Poland at the period of the
visits 'of the mission presented such difficulty, ow-
ing to heavy falls of snow and to the fact that a large
number of passenger trains had ceased running in
consequence of their accommodation being required
for the transport of food, that the mission was un-'
able to visit further towns.

My instructions directed my particular attention
to the necessity of enquiring into the statements re-
specting occurrences of excesses or "pogroms" in Po-
land. In Poland a "pogrom" is understood to be an
excess against a certain section of the population,
but in England, owing to the experience of previous
outbreaks in Russia, the word "pogrom" has be-
come associated with excesses organized by the
Government against a portion of the population, or
when the authorities took no steps to restrain those
perpetrating the excesses, or intervened at a period
too late to be effective in preventing the loss of
human life. The result of my enqiiiries brought me
to the conclusion that the occurrences at Lemberg,

Lida and Vilna come under the head of pogroms in
the sense generally understood in England. The
awful massacre at Pinsk partook more of the char-
acter of a military murder. During the outbreaks
which took place in the two other towns a certain
number of Jews were assaulted and plundered, but
the military authorities endeavoured to restrict the
action of the soldiers as much as possible. Speaking
generally, as the civil authority has been able to
make its power effective, so the position in the rear
of the troops has become more and more satis-
factory.

The Polish Government has been confronted with
the problem of maintaining order in those portions
of the German, Russian and Austrian Empires which
have been incorporated within the present Republic
of Poland. The establishment of order was en-
trusted to a semi-military force known -as the field
gendarmerie, corresponding somewhat to a military
police force. This body was recruited from a not
very desirable class, and is practically independent
of any but the highest civil authority. The gen-
darmerie has almost unlimited powers, and is in the
habit of entering the houses, chiefly of the Jews, at
any time of the day or night upon the pretext of
searching for arms, and robs and beats the Jews.
This is done quite openly, and the Jews may be said
to have no means of redress. Proceedings, when
taken, are allowed to drift for an interminable period,
and usually result in the implicated men being re-
leased. There is thus really no security for the
Jewish population. Besides the gendarmerie, there is
a police force, but the remarks applied to the former
can be taken as on the whole true with regard to
the latter also. The Polish Government recognises
the inadequacy of this body, and, I understand, is
taking steps to reorganise it.

In addition, the junior authorities of justice and
of civil administration also are of inferior standing
and morale, taking advantage of their position not
only to persecute the Jews, but also to exact bribes
upon an astonishing scale.

The foregoing remarks apply in a less degree to
Galicia, which has been brought under the adminis-
tration of the Polish Government during the past
}-ear. j\Iany former Austrian officials have been re-
tained, who, having been trained under the Austrian
Empire, maintain certain traditions which make for
a better condition of law and order. These remarks
equally apply to the districts of German Poland, but
in the remaining portion of Poland the officials being
new and inexperienced the deplorable result I have
mentioned has ensued. The higher officials both of
the Government and of Justice, in my opinion, are
not subject to these unfortunate failings, and when-

22

ever it is possible to obtain the attention of thefse
authorities a rough form of justice is achieved.

The contention of the Polish Government, that it
was not strong enough to keep pogroms under con-
trol in the past, may perhaps have some cogency,
but I should like to draw attention to the fact that,
with the exception of events at Minsk, no pogroms
have occurred during the stay of either the Ameri-
can Mission or the British Mission to Poland. It
would, therefore, appear reasonable to deduce that if
the Government is sufficiently strong to restrain
wrongdoers for this period, namely, about five
months, it should be competent to do so in future.

1 h? Jews in Poland and Galicia number about
\;hre? millions. As in other countries the large ma-
jority of them is very poor, suffering severely from
nunger and privation. Want of employment is
prevalent, although a large proportion of them are
artisans and labourers. They are divided broadly
into three classes, namely : —

1. What are known as the Assimilators ;

2. The Zionists ; and

3. The Orthodox;

though doubtless there are many Orthodox among
the Zionists. They speak a jargon known as
"Yiddish," which is to be found wherever Jews
congregate, but of recent years there is a tendency
to employ Hebrew as a living language, though it is
seldom used as the colloquial language of the home
circle. The fact of their language being akin to Ger-
man often led to their being employed during the
German occupation in preference to other Poles.
This circumstance caused the Jews to be accused
of having had business relations with the Germans.
Almost as soon as the Polish Government was es-
tablished, ill-feeling became manifest against the
Jews. Public opinion had been aroused against
them by the institution of a virulent boycott. This
boycott dates from shortly after the bye-election for
the Duma, which took place in Warsaw in 1912.
Amongst the candidates was M. Dmowski, one of
the leaders of the National Democratic Party.
When the names of the electors came to be scruti-
nised, it was found that the Jewish electors pos-
sessed the controlling influence in the election. They
considered, however, that the capital of Poland
should not be represented by a member of a minority
in the country, and therefore did not present a Jewish
candidate, but patriotically offered to support any
candidate who Avould abstain from an anti-Semitic
policy. The only candidate willing to accede to this
condition was M. Jagiello, a Roman Catholic Pole,
who was accordingly returned.^ M. Dmowski, who
was defeated at the poll, thereupon set out on a
campaign to break the Jewish influence, and from
that time to this has pursued a policy with the object
of driving the Jews from Poland, a step which
can only be fraught with disaster to the country.
During the war, owing to the scarcity of almost
everything, the boycott diminished, but with the
armistice it revi-\-ed with much of its original in-
tensity. A charge has been made against the Gov-

ernment of participation in this boycott. The Gov-
ernment publicly declared its disapproval of boycot-
ting, but a certain discrimination seems to have been
made in the re-employment of those who served under
the German occupation. I find that many Jews who
thus served have been relieved of their offices and
not reinstated, whereas I can find no evidence of
similar procedure in regard to other Poles. Jewish
doctors are unable to obtain positions in the hos-
pitals. Other qualified Jews cannot secure appoint-
ments as Post Office officials, on the railway staff
or as teachers in the public schools and colleges,
with the exception of Professor Askenazy, recently
appointed to a chair in the University of Warsaw.
There is also a limitation of the number of students
professing the Jewish religion permitted to enter
certain Universities. With the exception of doctors
and a few officials in the administrative offices, there
are few officers in the army. That this is merely a.
matter of religious prejudice is shown by the fact
that all these posts are open to those Jews who are
willing to change their religion.

In time of scarcity essential articles of food, such
as bread, potatoes and sugar, are distributed to the
population by minor officials. I received many com-
plaints that the Christian population were supplied
first, and that in numerous cases the stock was ex-
hausted before all the Jews had received their share.
The complaint that Jews and Christians were divided
into separate queues, and also that the Jews were dis-
criminated against to their disadvantage in the mar-
kets, could not be substantiated.

Without doubt a systematic attempt, more espe-
cially by provincial authorities, is being made to
oust Jews from their trades, and it is only where
these authorities are as a result confronted by pecu-
lation and incompetency that they realise the futility
of their action. The Government itself is not with-
out some experience of this kind. I had my atten-
tion drawn to cases of discrimination against Jews
dealing in hides, petroleum, salt, bread and other
articles, which, in my opinion, could only have been
based upon religious prejudice. I do not find, how-
ever, any ground for the complaint that the Govern-
ment is putting Jewish merchants at a disadvantage
in comparison with non-Jews with regard to per-
mission to import goods from abroad. In fact, the
club of Jewish merchants at Warsaw, consisting of
several thousand members, assured me that the ar-
rangements made were quite satisfactory. I have
also received facts and figures from M. Szczeniow-
ski, Minister of Commerce, fully bearing out this
point.

A severe private, social and commercial boycott
of Jews, however, exists amongst the people .gen-
erally, largel}' fostered by the Polish press. In
Lemberg I found that there was a so-called social
court presided over by M. Przyluski, a former Aus-
trian vice-president of the Court of Appeal, which
goes so far as to summon persons having trade rela-
tions with Jews to give an explanation of their con-
duct. Below will be found a copy of a typical cutting
from a Polish newspaper giving the name of a Polish
countess who sold property to Jews. This was sur-

23

rounded by a mourning border, such as is usual in
Poland in making announcements of death : —

"Malopolska hrabina
"Anna Jablonowska

"sprzedala we wrzesniu b.r. swoje dwie kamienice
przy up. Stryjskiej 1. 18 i 20 zydom: Dogilewskiemu,
Hiibnerowi i Erbsenowi.

"Zastepa prawnym pani hrabiny byl adwokat Dr.
Dziedzic, administratorem p. Naszkowski.

"Czy spoleczenstwo polskie bedzie wciaz martwe
i bierne w takich wypadkach ?"

(Translation.)

"Countess Anna Jablonowska, resident in Galicia,
has sold her two houses, Stryjska Street, Nos. 18
and 20, to the Jews, Dogilewski, Hiibner and
Erbsen.

"The attorney of the Countess was Dr. Dziedzic;
her administrator, M. Naszkowski.

"Will the Polish public for ever remain indiflEerent
and passive in such cases?"

There can be no doubt that the Government could
greatly restrain the virulency of this movement if
the powers usually resident in a Government were
efectually used to prohibit such agitation. Although
the Government declares against boycotting, the
Polish press is allowed openly to advocate it, whilst
the Yiddish press is suspended for quite trivial
offences. It is a well-known fact that the ill-results
of boycotting cannot be limited to the class
aimed at, for this weapon has a tendency to affect
others, and eventually to react upon those who make
use of it. The idea widely prevails that the so-
called Litvaks, Russian Jews driven to Poland by
the former Russian Government, should be induced
to return, and I am of opinion that, should a suitable
Government and peaceful conditions be re-estab-
lished in Russia, there would be a general immigra-
tion to that country, not only of Jews, but also of
other Poles. The ardent hope was frequently ex-
pressed to me that Russia would soon be open for
immigration, for, although the late Russian Govern-
ment fomented pogroms and massacres of the Jaws,
the Russian himself is of a kindly nature and friend-
ly disposed to his neighbour. Business relations be-
tween Poland and Russia were very considerable in
past, and were generally in the hands of Jews,^
not only in the handling of the goods exported, but
also of their manufacture. Warsaw, the Polish
capital, formed a meeting-place for the merchants
of Russia and the western States, and was also a
depot for goods eventually destined for Russia. All
these trading agencies are now at a standstill, and
Poland is feeling the economic result of this stop-
page. Other inducements for an industrial popula-
tion, subjected to a boycott, to leave the country are
to be found in the absence of raw materials and in
the scarcity of food and fuel, as well as in the hard-
ships consequent upon rising prices arising from
the unfavourable conditions of foreign exchange.

Initiative in business matters is almost entirely
the prerogative of the Jewish population. In Lodz
the cotton industry and the development of the

town has been effected mostly through the instru-
mentality of the Jews. Manufactures and business
generally have, owing to the circumstances prevail-
ing before and during the war, fallen largely into
the hands of Jews.^ It is impossible to replace
such a valuable section of the community by a fresh
body of merchants untrained and unaccustomed to
handle the important mercantile interests which
should, in view of the advantages accruing to Po-
land under the Peace Treaty, largely increase in the
near future.

The fallacious idea, however, is prevalent in Pol-
and that it is possible to transfer a large percentage
of the business carried on by the Jews to other hands.
If a Jewish Pole is driven from his factory or bus-
iness the act does not provide more work for the
Christian Pole, but diminishes it. When the ques-
tion of external trade comes to be considered it is
impossible to displace without grave results firms
who have built up a business over a long series of
years, who are acquainted with, and know the re-
quirements of, their customers in remote countries
and have gradually acquired confidence and credit.
No new combination, whether Jewish or Christian,
could conduct such a business successfully except
after long experience. Moreover, I found it to be
a fact that the Jewish Pole commands greater trust
than his neighbours. To such an extent is this the
case in Poland that nearly the whole of the estate
agents who act for the Polish nobility are, of Jewish
race. The real interest of the Polish State would
seem to be rather in the direction of developing and
encouraging the export business hitherto carried on
by Jews ; in this way -lies almost the sole hope of
the economic regeneration of Poland and of the re-
habilitation of its depreciated currency. In this con-
nection it should be remembered that depreciation
of currency as expressed in terms of external values
does not arise solely from an adverse trade balance,
but that a normal rate of exchange demonstrates
also the healthy functioning of stable Government
and the consequent safety of life and property.

Polish statesmen frequently assert that the pro-
portion of Jewish small tradesmen to the general
population is too great. If the complaint were lim-
ited to this alone it might safely be left to find its
own remedy, for I found that the children of this
class were not satisfied to follow the parents' voca-
tion but were endeavouring, by means of attending
technical and other schools, to attain a higher
educational and social level. This class, however,
little above the pauper, ever finds itself driven back
upon itself by the economic restraints which it en-
counters until at last, in desperation, it is forced to
emigrate. I found but few families that had not
one member at least in America or Canada. Ex-
perience has shown, as in the case of Ireland, that
it is always a disadvantage to a country to have an
emigration of despairing people, as these sow the
seed of their discontent in other lands. A further
remedy for this congestion of occupation would be
to introduce into Poland new. industries, for which
Jews in other countries have evinced special apti-
tude. The difficulty of securing raw material limits

24

the occupations available at the present time, but
it would appear quite feasible to start factories for
the manufacture of waterproofing, galoshes, furni-
ture, boots, and clothing. Doubtless western Jews
would be prepared to assist their brethren to reach
a higher plane of industrial development, but un-
fortunately the Christian Poles, although not under-
taking such enterprises to any extent themselves,
exhibited distinct hostility to any such suggestion
which would benefit both the Jews and the State
alike. Many Poles, however, enlarge the demand
for a reduction of the number of small Jewish trades-
men to one for the reduction of the Jewish popula-
tion as a whole. This proposition is fraught with a
danger not confined to the Jews; it is a danger to
the State. To render the conditions of life so in-
tolerable to the Jew as to force him to leave his
native country, has ever been followed by disastrous
consequences to the country, where this form of
persecution has been essayed ; whereas in every
country, where the Jew has been granted an effec-
tic citizenship, he has proved himself a mainstay
of law and order. The Jew has usually so much to
lose through the consequences of disorder that he
ranges himself instinctively on the side of good
government. It is for the Poles to choose whether
they will follow the example of Great Britain, the
United States of America, France, Holland, Italy
and the other liberal-minded States which have
treated the Jew equitably, or link their fate with
ancient Eg^pt, mediaeval Spain and modern Russia.
It must further be considered that when the Jew
is driven out, his capital is driven out with him. In
fact, in most cases it precedes him, for the poor and
helpless Jew is not the first to leave in face of eco-
nomic persecution such as a boycott or the fear
of personal safety, but rather he who possesses the
means to seek happier conditions of livelihood else-
where. Thus, at the very time when it is vital to
the interest of Poland to import capital, were the
suggested policy carried into action, it would have
for its result the export of capital. In addition,
there is the danger that the better minds amongst
non-Jews would not be willing to remain in a coun-
try wherein truth and justice are absent.

Another policy appears to have as its object the
identification of Jews as Bolsheviks in order to dis-
tract public attention from the Government. The
real danger of Bolshevism, however, is to be sought
in other directions, although it should not be mat-
ter for surprise if some of the younger* generation
of educated Jews, finding all avenues of advance-
ment and fair play barred, should be found ready
to listen to proposals for freedom and equality of
opportunity. It is a fair retort that the Govern-
ment policy is making potential revolutionaries of
these peoples. If the Polish Government would
grant the Jews a genuine, and not a masked, equal-
ity, they would secure the support of the most
conservative law-abiding and loyal section of the
population. All the Jews ask is to be allowed to
live in peace and safety. By grinding them down
by economic differentiation a certain number of
these people may be induced to emigrate, but the

danger will always remain that a certain residuum
will be forced into the ranks of the disaffected and
disloyal. The Jew may be robbed, plundered, have
his beard cut and be otherwise insulted for a time,
but who can be surprised if a point be reached
when men will not tolerate such treatment longer
and will be prepared to make the utmost sacrifices
to achieve the honour of their manhood?

Under this hard and continued pressure many
Jews have been constrained to change their reli-
gion, and it is mostly these "Jews" who are meant
when "Jews" are mentioned as being in Government
employ.

I made careful enquiries in various parts of Po-
land as to the extent to which Bolshevik principles
had permeated the Jewish population, and the high-
est estimate which I encountered was 10 per cent,
of their number, a considerably less proportion,
according to my informants, than characterises the
population as a whole. In investigating the truth
of the statement that Jews in Poland sympathise
with Bolshevism, attention must be paid to the
fact that Jews form the middle class almost in its
entirety.* Above are the aristocracy and below are
the peasants. Their relations with the peasants
are not unsatisfactory. The young peasants can-
not read the newspapers and are therefore but
slightly contaminated by anti-Semitism until they
enter the army. I was informed that it is not at
all unusual for Polish peasants to avail themselves
of the arbitrament of the .Jewish rabbi's courts.
Another point to be borne in mind is that a very
considerable proportion of the Jews belong to the
orthodox form of the religion. If I understand
aright, Bolshevism stands against both religion and
the bourgeoisie; it must therefore be clear from
the above statements that by the acceptance of these
tenets most of the Polish Jews would but compass
their own destruction.

In conclusion, I desire to point out that, if the
social boycott were successful in securing a large
emigration of Jews, it would result in a very large
decrease in the productive powers of Poland. As
the future of the republic depends largely upon its
exports exceeding its imports the future of the
State itself might be imperilled. The Polish Gov-
ernment would be well advised in its own interests
that to take immediate and active measures to bring
this unsatisfactory condition of affairs to a speedy
end would be acting in the best interests of the
people committed to its charge.

I now propose to report upon the result of my
investigations into the excesses perpetrated in the
towns I visited in the order they occurred. Before
doing so I would like to remark that as statements
that the Jews were enemies of the rest of the popu-
lation, and that all misfortunes were to be ascribed
to their influence, were constantly circulated, and
the Jews formed an easy prey for robbery and
plunder, attacks upon them were to be expected.
It was, however, the evil example of the military as
they entered captured towns which as a rule incited
the civil population to join in the pogroms. If the
military commanders had but performed their duty

25

to humanity and their office, the loss of life would
have been considerably less. Poland, too, would
not be burdened with these still unpunished crimes.

Lcmhcnj. — With regard to the events in Lemberg
on the 2ist, 22nd and 23rd November, 1918, con-
sideration has to be given to the very remarkable po-
sition that was to be found in that city at that
period, and it is noteworthy upon what a small scale
were the operations. Previous to the date mentioned
the Ukrainian army consisted of about 10,000 men
in occupation of that portion of East Galicia, but
General Monczynski raised a Polish army, about
1,500 in number, consisting of men, women, boys,
some of them criminals, and, after a severe struggle,
succeeded in capturing half the city, the other half
of which remained in the occupation of the Ukrain-
ians. The Jewish part of the population of Lem-
berg declared itself to be neutral. After street fight-
ing of a severe character the Polish forces succeeded
in driving the Ukrainians entirely out of the city.
This result was achieved through the advent of a
considerable body of Polish troops brought under
General Roja from Posen. It has been proved to
my satisfaction that these troops were promised
three days free looting of the Jewish quarter, and I
had it in evidence that Jews were warned by Chris-
tian friends of the certainty of a pogrom on the
days mentioned. The Polish soldiers and popula-
tion were somewhat incensed by the attitude of the
Jews in not having assisted them in their struggle,
but nothing can excuse the work of robbery and
murder which took place on the days mentioned
(21st, 22nd and 23rd November).

Helena Schine deposed that a body of soldiers
came to her house, shot her father, her brother and
her brother-in-law, and would have shot her, but.
she gave them 3,000 crowns and they went away.
The soldiers came again at about 12 o'clock in the
day and shot her brother, who was still living,
though previously wounded, dead. They broke
open the safe and stole the silver plate. Another
body of soldiers came to the house about 5 o'clock.
She had by then taken refuge on the third floor with
a Polish woman, who when the soldiers came the
third time sent them away.

Various other witnesses deposed that many build-
ings were set on fire with petroleum obtained from
a store ; as the occupants ran out to escape the
flames, they were shot down in the • street in cold
blood by Polish soldiers. The synagogue was
burned, the safe being opened by means of machine-
gun fire, and the scrolls of the law were burned
and everything of value removed. The result of
the three days' looting was that fifty-two Jews were
killed, 463 wounded, and a large amount of property
stolen.

It should be stated that proceedings were taken
against General Roja, who was in command of
the Posen troops, but he was declared to be suffer-
ing from a nervous breakdown.

The Poles alleged that the Jews, whilst calling
themselves neutrals, had shown active sympathy

with the Ukrainians, but the evidence given did not,
in my opinion, support that contention.

The charge brought against the Jewish militia —
a body consisting of 200 men of Jewish race en-
rolled to defend and keep order in the Jewish quar-
ter- — of having tired at the Polish troops has been
recently the subject of proceedings in the Polish
Courts ; the charge was dismissed.

In the result none of the military commanders
responsible for these events has been punished, and
no compensation has been paid for the damage done.

Pinsk.—Tht events at Pinsk on the 5th April,
1919, when thirty-five Jews were shot, took place
about ten days after the town had been taken from
the Bolsheviks by the PoHsh army. The Polish
command had, a day or two before, suffered a re-
verse at the hands of the Bolsheviks and were in
a state of nervousness as to an attack on the town.
It seems that two Polish soldiers, one named Kosak,
who is now in prison for robbery, and another sol-
dier, since reported as killed in action, informed the
military authorities that they had information that
the Jews intended to hold a Bolshevik meeting on
Saturday in what is known as the People's House,
being the headquarters of the Zionists.

The events that followed appear to be so incred-
ible that I think it best to give the evidence of the
witnesses. Abraham Feinstein, president of the
Zionist Co-opei-ative Society, deposed that about
the 28th March he received a letter from the Govern-
ment Organiser of Co-operative Societies, M. Tro'-
fimowicz (a non-Jew), stating that it was desirable
that all co-operative societies in the town should
combine, and giving them up to the 7th April to
make their decisoin. He enclosed the Government
permission for the meeting to. take place. Notices
were posted in the streets and in the large syna-
gogues. The meeting took place on Saturday, the
5.th April, and there were about 150 persons present,
consisting of men and women. The meeting com-
menced at 5. M. Eisenberg was in the chair. M.
Trofimowicz was present at the opening of the
meeting and explained its purpose and left at 5 :30.
It was decided unanimously to combine. A discus-
sion then took place as to how many delegates were
to be sent to the combination. That matter was
adjourned, and most of the co-operators went home.
Mr. Zukerman, an American, had brought 50,000
marks to be distributed for the holy days. Many of
those present went into another room to discuss
this, and how the money was to be distributed.
Whilst this was going on some boys came in and
said soldiers were there to take Jews for forced
labour. They all went into the large hall. Soldiers
were shouting and others were stealing food from
the refreshment room. The house consisted of two
floors — shops on the ground floor and the club on
the first floor. Feinstein went into a friend's shop
on the ground floor to take shelter, and later found
the whole building surrounded by soldiers, including
Kosak. Kosak stopped people and took bribes from
them not to take them for forced labour. Feinstein
then hid in Gottleib's store on the ground floor, but

26

was discovered and a soldier was left to guard him.
He heard a shot upstairs. Gottleib went out to
get some water, and came back and said a dead man
was lying in the yard. At 10 an under-officer came
and said that about fifty arrested people had been
shot dead and that his turn would come at 5 o'clock
the next morning. At 1 :30 A. M. an under-officer
and two soldiers came and sent the guarding soldier
away. They robbed him and said : "You must go to
the Kommandatur, and you will be shot, as all the
meeting were Bolsheviks." One soldier, a Polish
under-officer, said he could speak Yiddish, and that
he was in the synagogue and heard the Jews arrange
to act against the Poles, and that he heard a young
man say : "We will have a meeting in the People's
House at 5." Feinstein stated it was untrue, then
the soldier said he would take 150 roubles to let
them go, there being six of them in Gottlieb's room,
and eventually he consented to take 50 roubles. He
then found two pocket-books and took 500 roubles
and 600 roubles respectively from them. He then
said : "You are free." He accompanied Feinstein
along the street and he arrived home at 4 A. M.

Saloman Gittelman, a teacher, deposed that he
was arrested at the People's House at about 5
o'clock. He was a member of the Co-operative
Society and attended the meeting. He heard a shot.
Soldiers then, came in and said, "Why have you shot
at us?" and ordered all to stand with hands up.
They were all searched and beaten. No arms were
found. The soldiers ordered all out, surrounded
them, and took them to the Kommandatur. They
were severely beaten on the way. An army doctor
named Bakraba stopped them on the way and en-
quired what it all meant, and the soldiers replied
that the Jews had shot at soldiers. A soldier stepped
up and said that they had shot at him and wounded
him in the head. The doctor replied, "All these Jews
ought to be shot." They arrived at the Komman-
datur, were stood out in the street, and were all
robbed. There were several officers present. There
was no trial. Soldiers came back from the Kom-
mandatur and they were taken to the market-place.
They murdered about sixty. Each was placed
against the wall. It was extremely dark, and sol-
diers came with a motor bearing a searchlight. An
officer came and looked into everyone's face, and
some were removed, including the women. The
remainder were then informed that their last mo-
ment had come, and they could say their prayers.
They then, with the lead of the teacher, uttered in
a loud voice their last prayers for the dying (I may
mention that these so-called Bolsheviks, who pro-
fess a negation of religion, uttered their last prayers
in such a -loud voice that they could be heard right
across the market-place). The officer then com-
manded the soldiers to shoot. The figures against
the wall fell, after which the soldiers came and shot
those who moved on the ground. The remainder,
who had been put on one side, were then taken to
prison at 10 o'clock. There had been no trial and
no word whatever said to them previous to the
shooting. Nothing to eat was given. Seventeen
men were placed in one room, and at 11:30 three

men were brought in. They said that the man
Glauberman had been shot, but not at the wall. I
have arrived at the conclusion that the shot heard
by those in the club was one fired at random by a
soldier outside to give colour to the charge that the
soldiers had been fired upon, and unfortunately it
killed Glauberman, who was hiding in a shed under-
neath the stairs leading up to the club. I was
shown the hole made by the bullet. No arms were
found in the possession of these alleged Bolsheviks.

Next morning an under-officer came and took
their names, and said : "We will show you what has
become of your friends." Nineteen of them were
taken to the cemetery by a gendarme and some •"'-'
diers. They were shown a freshly fiUed-in grave.
They were given shovels and told to reopen the
grave. This done, they were placed together in a
row. Soldiers arrived and were placed in front of
them with rifles levelled at them. The gendarme
said to the soldiers: "Are you ready?" One of the
prisoners, an elderly teacher, then prayed in a loud
voice as follows : "O Lord, forgive thy servants.
Thou art powerful to save even now." The words
were no sooner out of his mouth than an el- :
derly gendarme came to the gendarme in com-
mand and whispered something to him. He
ordered the prisoners to fill up the grave,
again, and they were taken to the prisonj and even-
tually Gittelman was sent home. Two of those shot
were teachers, colleagues of his for twenty years.
It appears that Miss Rabinovitch, who gave evi-
dence later, had intervened on their behalf.

Aaron Rubin, an elderly manager of a match fac-
tory, deposed that he was present at the co-oper-
ative meeting. He stated that the soldiers in the
large room searched the people and beat them. One
man had 11,500 roubles in his possession, which
was stolen from him. He shouted that he had been
robbed of this amount. A soldier then went down-
stairs, and shortly came back and said : "Who has
shot?" Rubin generally confirmed the previous wit-
ness's evidence, i He was one of those taken from
the wall and taken to the cemetery. In the ceme-
tery the soldiers loaded their rifles and said their
last moment had come. After they had returned to
the prison, a gendarme interviewed them and en-
deavoured to get a confession from them. Each
one was taken separately in a separate room,
stripped, and beaten with straps and ramrods. They
were then all put together in one room half dead
from flogging. This included six women. They
were told to put on their clothes and return to their
cells. On Tuesday a gendarme came and said that
if there were an enquiry they must say that they
had not been beaten. On Wednesday he was re-
leased by doctor's orders.

A young lady who desired her name not to be
published, aged about 25, deposed that she went
to the People's House to enquire as to whether she
was to participate in the American money. Soldiers
came in and began to eat food they found in a cup-
board. They were seeking young Jews for forced
labour. An elderly officer came and said they were
all to go into the large room. They searched the

27

people, and the first man searched had over 10,000
roubles. In her opinion all that followed was to
cover the robbery. She confirmed the statement
that they were all taken outside the Komman-
datur. She confirmed the interview with Dr.
Bakraba, but added that Dr. Bakraba himself
beat a girl named Eisenberg. No question was
put to them. They remained in the street. They
expected they would be brought into the Komman-
datur but were not, and remained in the street. A
passer-b}- named Krasalstchik, who was walking on
the pavement with a Miss Polak, was taken by the
soldiers and included with the prisoners, and even-
tually shot. They were then all taken to the mar-
ket-place and put against the wall of the church.
All was dark. She saw some of the women led
away a short distance, so she walked out of the line
too. All those remaining at the wall were given
time to say their last words. A teacher chanted
the last Jewish prayers for the dying, and the others
repeated them after him. They were then shot
dead. The survivors were told their time would
come on the morrow, and that they would be
hanged. From the wall they were led to the prison.
The women were in a s.eparate room. The Polish
guard treated them very badly, but the Governor
of the prison treated them kindly. The warders
said they would be shot. A gendarme came later
and they were all led to a room, stripped naked, re-
volvers put to their heads and flogged. They were
then turned out of the room naked with their clothes
in their hands into a corridor full of soldiers, who
kicked and struck them. They were then sent into
another room where they dressed and were allowed
to go free.

M. Abrahamovitch gave evidence that he heard a
noise, was frightened, and hid in the roof of the
synagogue on the other side of the market-place.
At a quarter to 9 in the evening of Saturday he
heard firing and groans that lasted all night, and sol-
diers laughing. One of the men, Palatzny, was shot
and only slightly wounded ; at 5 :30 on the morning
of the 6th April he got up and ran away. He was
observed by the soldiers and shot dead.

Sonia Rabinovitch, a girl student from Kieff, was
staying at Pinsk with her father. Polish officers
lived at her father's house, and she was able to
intervene to save the people at the cemetery. (I
have no doubt that the eventual release of these peo-
ple was the direct consequence of the arrival of an
American officer who began to make enquiries.)

An official statement relative to these events
issued on the 7th April by General Listovski, com-
mander of the group, I find devoid of all credence.

The treatment meted out to these so-called Jewish
Bolsheviks is in contrast to the treatment of avow-
edly Bolshevik Poles. M. Gabryl Kiewicz was com-
missary for the town, a post corresponding to mayor,
during the. Bolshevik occupation, and he is now a*
paid official in the Election Office.^ M. Melech,
who was administrator of the Food Department for
the Bolsheviks, is now employed in the municipal
administration.

In conversation with local Christian Poles the

Mission was informed that the town was heartily
ashamed of this dreadful tragedy, and believed that
the people massacred were quite innocent.

In conclusion, I may state that Major Luczynski
and Lieutenant Landsberg", who were in command
on the occasion mentioned, in no way have been pun-
ished. They have simply been removed to other
posts. I have endeavoured unsuccessfully to see
Major Luczynski.

Under the present local administration Pinsk is
once more peaceful, and the relations between the
Christian and the non-Christian inhabitants have
become normal.

Lida.— On the 16th April, 1919, the Poles attacked
the Bolshevik troops occupying Lida, this being the
second day of the Jewish Passover. The Jews
were frightened and there were only ten Jews in the
synagogue, the rest remaining in their houses. It
was proved to my satisfaction that on the 16th the
Bolsheviks ordered all their soldiers to leave their
billets and return to barracks. This they refused
to do, and when the Polish troops entered the town,
they shot at them from the windows of the houses.
This was in the poorer Jewish quarter, because
most of the best houses were taken possession of
by officers, leaving the less desirable houses to be
occupied by their men. Consequently when the
Polish troops eventually entered the town on the
morning of the 17th they attacked the Jewish quar-
ter, killing on the two days, the 16th and the 17th,
thirty-five Jews. The case of the man Poukoff and
his son, who were first robbed of '150,000 roubles
and then taken out into the street and shot without
trial, was a particularly bad case. In fact, the bulk
of the people killed were either murdered in their
houses or shot outside them. On the 19th only
there was a court-martial, when six Jews and two
Christians were sentenced to be shot. On the 17th
200 Jews were arrested in the Jewish quarter, but
were released without any trial after five days. The
Rabbi of the place. Rabbi Rabbinovitch, was ar-
rested, robbed and beaten, together with many other
Jews. On the 18th a body of a soldier was found
mutilated, and the Jews were accused of having
murdered him ; this caused great excitement in the
town. It was said that a Catholic priest intervened,
and asked in church that anyone who knew any-
thing of the case should inform him. Later the
excitement died down, and the rumour was spread
that the priest had interfered to say that the mur-
derer was not a Jew. The priest referred to had left
Lida, and I was unable to obtain confirmation of this
story, but believe it to be true.

Vilna was taken from the Bolsheviks on the 19th
April, 1919, by Polish troops. The rumour was
spread that the Jews had shot at the Polish soldiers,
whereupon soldiers and civilians commenced a mas-
sacre and robbery of the Jews which lasted three
days. Fifty-five Jews were killed, including two
well-known authors, MM. Weiter and Ivianski, a
large number were wounded and 2,000 arrested as
sympathisers with the Bolsheviks. Of these 1,000
were released upon guarantees being given, and the

28

remainder were removed to internment camps under
conditions oi the greatest hardship. Most of these
poor people have been kept in these unsanitary
and loathsome camps, suffering hunger and fre-
quent beatings, without trial, and had not been re-
leased at the time of the mission's visit in Novem-
ber. Amongst those arrested for having shot at the
Polish soldiers were the Rev. I. Rubinstein, one of
the principal Rabbis, and Dr. Shabad, the head of
the community. I may add that the 19th April was
a Saturday, when, being the Jewish Sabbath, a
R'abbi would be most unlikely to carry or use fire-
arms. Nevertheless, these gentlemen were marched
by soldiers through the streets, beaten and spat
upon not only by the mob, but also by well-dressed
ladies and gentlemen, till they reached a garden
where they were informed that they were about to
be shot. After a detention during which they ex-
pected every minute to be their last, these gentle-
men eventually were released through the interven-
tion of an officer and sent home. The killing and
plundering lasted for three days, many houses being
completely looted and the synagogue desecrated, in
spite of the presence in the city of General Joseph
Pilsudski, the Chief of the State. Officers stated
publicly that they regarded all the Vilna Jews as
enemies and sympathisers with Bolsheviks. A cer-
tain number of Jews, owing to their better educa-
tion, undoubtedly acted as officials during the Bol-
shevik regime. But the fact of Christian Poles act-
ing in a similar manner does not seem to have
aroused resentment. My attention was called to
several instances where former Bolshevik officials
still occupied public offices. M. Solimani was on
the Economical Council of the Bolsheviks, and at
the time of the mission's visit was in the Agricul-
tural Department; but is now a Polish railway offi-
cial. M. Jachimoricz, of the Bolshevik Economical
Department, is now secretary to the Municipality
of Vilna. The Jews do not appear, however, to
have supported the Bolsheviks in a military sense.
The Bolsheviks publicly complained that only 1 per
cent, of their army were Jews. With regard to the
alleged shooting by Jews upon Polish troops, M.
Zmaczynski, President of the Court of the province,
and M. Buyko, Vice-President of the Court, both
gentlemen of high character, informed the mission
that they themselves had seen Jewish men and
women (civilians) firing for two hours in Populanki
and Alexandrovska Boulevard.

Further, there was submitted for my inspection an
official copy of a declaration purporting to be signed
by four members of the Danish Legation, Section B,
at Petrograd, to the effect that on the 19th April
at the Vilna railway station, they had been wit-
nesses of a fusillade directed by the Jewish civil
population against the Polish troops. With regard
to this statement, the Danish Legation at Warsaw
was kind enough to make some enquiry at the Dan-
ish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Danish Gov-
ernment in reply communicated to His Majesty's
Government the following declaration by the former
Danish Minister at Petrograd: —

"I have the honour to state that two of

the signatories of the document in question,
Sachsenburg and Ernst, both Austrians, were
at one time employed in Section B at the
Danish Legation, the former in the Passport
Office, the latter as a copying clerk. Dr.
Klein I do not recall. As stated in this Le-
gation's report No. 221 of the 6th December
last, there has never been any Danish Mis-
sion at Vilna or Warsaw, and when the in-
dividuals concerned state, in a document
dated Warsaw, the 25th April, 1919, that they
are members of the Royal Danish Legation,
this allegation must be regarded as entirely
unjustifiable and deserves to be repudiated.
It would lead very far if all persons who at
any time have been employed in Section B
were to be entitled for the rest of their lives
to describe themselves as 'members of the
Royal Danish Legation.' The declaration is,
as far as I can judge, perfectly authentic."

If Jewish civilians actually did fire upon Polish
soldiers — and I found it impossible to distinguish
between the type of Jew prevailing in the Vilna-
Pinsk district and that of the ordinary Russian or
Tartar inhabitants — the fact cannot justify the
whole civilian population being handed over de-
fenceless to massacre and rapine. I regret to state
that no official investigation has been made into
these outrages and no one punished.

The excesses reported from Cracow and Lodz
took the form of local riots arising from transient
causes. Though considerable property was de-
stroyed and plundered and many Jews seriously as-
saulted both by soldiers and civilians, there was no
actual loss of life except that of one man — although
that is one too many — at the latter place. I am of
opinion that the affair at Lodz might have attained
considerably less proportions if, when the police
proved unequal to quell the disturbance, the military
authorities had acted with greater promptitude.

A young man, Selig Lipman, a survivor of an at-
tack on a farm at Slobodka Lesna, made the follow-
lowing declaration before me at Warsaw."

Farm at Slobodka Lesna

"In peace time the farm was an agricultural col-
lege, and there were between sixty and seventy stu-
dents. It is an estate belonging to the Jewish
Colonial Association situated near the village of
Lesna. The students were being prepared for agri-
cultural work in Palestine. There are two houses
on the farm : one the house of the director and the
other where the pupils were housed. At the time
of the following events there were, at the college
thirteen boy and four girl students.

"On the 6th June, 1919, the army of General
Zeligowsky was marching from Russia through
Roumania to Poland.

"The farm is situated near the main road, and the
students were engaged at their usual occupations
when some of the artillery of this army and about
200 cavalry halted not far from the farm. Pickets
were placed at the two entrances to the farm.

29

"An officer, a corporal and some soldiers came to
the director's house. A cart was in front of the
house loaded with grain. The soldiers took five
sacks. A portion of the picket meanwhile sur-
rounded the students' house. They proceeded to
whip the students. I myself was not in the house
as I was engaged in getting some cows out of the
stable. I understand the soldiers asked the students
if they were Polish. They replied: 'No, they were
Jews.' Whereupon the soldiers began to beat them
with swords. One of the boys, whilst being beaten,
put up his hand to protect himself, and had his hand
badly wounded by a sword. He then attempted to
escape, but was unable to do so as he was followed
by mounted soldiers. So he threw himself flat on
the ground and they rode over him. He then
sought refuge in a distillery.

"The rest of the boys were driven into the black-
smith's foundry. The soldiers then shot dead three
of them : —

"Samuel Presser, aged 19, was killed instantan-
eously.

. "Joseph Ball, aged 18, and / ,. , , . .
"Zevi Rothenburg, aged 18 ( '^'^'^ shortly after.

"Subsequently the soldiers went to the distillery
where the boy, Jacob Wilf, had taken refuge and
shot him three times. He was not mortally
wounded and has since recovered.

"Ball, who was still living, was removed by two

girl students to their room. This was discovered

by the soldiers, who went there and shot him dead

through the head. Rothenburg, already dead, had

'his throat cut by the soldiers.

: I "The girls then hid themselves, and, not being
'discovered, were not molested.

"The whole of the proceedings only lasted half-
■an-hour. When I returned irom the stables the
whole business had finished. As^ soon as the sol-
diers came to the house I was ordered by the di-
rector to get the cows into the meadow, and so was
not present when the above events-took place.

"The soldiers asked the Director if he was a Jew,
and he stated that he was a Czech, and was there-
fore not molested.

"On the previous night these same soldiers killed
a Jewish family of six people; a Ruthenian peasant
(non-Jewish) was taken into a forest and shot, and
another Ruthenian peasant flogged and beaten.

"(Signed) SELIG LIPMAN."

• ,; Having dealt with these excesses in detail, I will
now proceed to consider them as a whole.

" It is very difficult to ascertain the number of lives
'lost through these painful occurrences, but, taking
the lowest figure in cases of doubt, the total cannot
be less than 348. These figures, terrible though
they be, fail to convey an impression of the terrible
condition of apprehension and anxiety under which
the Jews labour. The military authorities, under
the pretext of military necessity, arbitrarily took

Jews, but rarely Christians, for forced labour. There
was seldom any necessary labour to be performed,
and on most occasions upon payment of a bribe
these men were released. In one town, Bobrojuisk,
Jews were taken from the Synagogue on the Day of
Atonement and forced to remove dung from the
military stables and streets. Even old men were
forced to do this work. At Lemberg Jews were
taken for forced labour at any time of the night.
In order to avoid this the Jewish Relief Committee
undertook to provide labourers. They paid nearly
three million crowns in bribery, but Jews were still
taken and sent back, as there was no work for them
to do, though at that same time still more Jews
were being taken in the streets for forced labour.

Unfortunately their distinctive dress and mien,
and their practice of not cutting the beard, in accord-
ance with the Biblical precept, render them easy
butts for hooligan humour. My attention was di-
rected to numerous cases of Jews being assaulted
and robbed in railway trains, and their beards cut
at railway stations, nearly all these outrages being
perpetrated by soldiers travelling on the railway.
The railway authorities appear to have been both
unwilling and unable to restrain these excesses. In
no instance was I able to ascertain that any punish-
ment followed' the offence.

I noticed in several towns, more especially in
Warsaw, that the streets in the Jewish quarter were
left uncleaned and were in a state of worse repair
than other parts of the city. It does not appear to
be recognised that a sanitary danger to a portion
of the community involves sanitary danger to the
whole.

On several occasions the resentment of the sol-
diery and civil population was aroused by the Zion-
ists' claim to Jewish nationality as opposed to Polish
nationality. The same claim was declared to me by
Government officials to be the reason for the non-ad-
mission of Jews into the Post Office and other Gov-
ernment offices, but no evidence was adduced to me
that Jews not so declaring themselves of separate
nationality were able to secure appointments.

A serious feature of the situation is the fact that
it is very difficult for the Jews to otain redress and
restitution. Although nominally every citizen is
free to approach the Government, actualUy repre-
sentations produce no result.

At present the Jews are considerably under repre-
sented in the Polish Parliament (Sejm), having
only 11 out' of 390 seats.' This is largely owing to
the manner in which the boundaries of the present
constituencies are drawn. Until they secure a rep-
resentation of about forty members, which is about
their proportion of the general population, it will
be difficult for them to make any appreciable im-
pression upon public opinion. Most cf the requests
made to the Polish Government appear to be met
with the reply that the Jews have their privileges
in accordance with their numerical proportion to the
rest of the population. Whilst this rejoinder is
apparently frank and just, it is nevertheless spe-
cious ; the Jews, as in most other parts of the world,

30

have specialised in definite occupations. To answer
their complaints, when their own representative in-
dustries are attacked, to the effect that they have
their proper proportion of privileges, appears to be
a refinement of casuistry. I feel, however, that the
Government eventually will be able to make its
sobering influence more directly felt by the gen-
eral population ; meanwhile the Jews must have pa-
tience in order to give time for this to become effec-
tive.

I have striven to detail and discuss the distressing
incidents under investigation with a restraint befit-
ting the official mission with which I have had the
honour to be entrusted. I feel bound, however, to
place on record the pain and horror with which I
listened to the eye-witnesses of these callous and
bloodthirsty crimes by which so many innocent and
harmless people were done to death.

I consider that the bare recital of these terrible
events is enough to reveal how insecure are Jewish
life and property in Poland, and how easily — if the
evil causes at work be not speedily removed— ex-
cesses may break out again, possibly upon a far
more serious scale.

Many countries have been affected by temporary
waves of anti-Semitism. The movement has been
somewhat accentuated in Poland . at the present
time owing to war, famine and the difficult political
position. Poles generally are of a generous nature,
and if the present incitements of the press were
repressed by a strong official hand Jews would be
able to live, as they have done for the past 800
years, on good terms with their fellow citizens in
Poland.

In the hope of assisting this desirable consumma-
tion I have the honour to submit the following
recommendations for the consideration of His
Majesty's Government. I won d draw your atten-
tion to the fact that I have not embodied in this re-
port any matters- which I was not able to investigate
personally during the stay of ths mission in Po-
land : —

Recommendations

1. That the Polish Government be urged to carry
out the clauses of the Minority Treaty of June 28,
1919, in a spirit of sympathy with its Jewish sub-
jects. A State can only be strong when all sections
of its inhaitants are working unitedly and in mutual
confidence for its welfare.

2. That a genuine and not a "masked" equality
be accorded to the Jewish population of Poland.

3. That all outrages against the person or prop-
erty of the subject, irrespective of religion or race,
should be promptly punished and the names of the
delinquents published. This latter action is espe-
cially necessary, inasmuch as the State does not
punish out of revenge but as a deterrent to others.

4. That Jews in East Galicia be restored to their

official positions in the same manner as non-Jews
have been.

5. That Jewish railway officials and employees
be restored to their posts in the same manner as
non-Jews have been.

6. That no restrictions should be placed upon the
number of Jews admitted to the Universities.

7. Tha,t a decree be published declaring boycotts
illegal, and ordering all publications advocating
boycott to be suspended.*

8. That all prisoners in internment camps be
brought to immediate trial, and that humane treat-
ment be assured to all interned prisoners.

9. That facilities be afforded for the introduction
of new industries into Poland with a view to con-
verting a larger proportion of the Jewish population
into producers.

10. That the British Government should assist
Jews wishing to emigrate from Poland by providing
facilities to proceed to countries such as Palestine,
Canada, South Africa, Algeria and South America,
or any other country desiring to receive them.

11. That banks be established possessing the con-
fidence of the Jewish public, so that money might be
deposited therein instead of being carried on the
person or concealed in dwellings.^

12. That the desirability of a secretary who un-
derstands and speaks Yiddish being added to the
staff of His Majesty's Legation at Warsaw be con-
sidered.

I have to thank M. Hendryk Wolowski, of the
Polish Foreign Office, who was detailed to act as
liaison officer between the British Mission and the
various Ministries, for his invaluable services in
securing such information as was desired, and for
his courteous aid and assistance in furthering the
object and securing the comfort of the mission dur-
ing its stay in Poland.

I have also to inform you that consequent upon
the introduction of the mission by Sir Percy Wynd-
ham, then British Minister, to M. de Skrzynski, act-
ing Prime Minister in M. Paderewski's absence,
every assistance was rendered by the Polish Gov-
ernment to the mission in prosecuting its enquiry.

I beg to thank you for the advice and assistance
you rendered me.

I desire to add that Mr. Sidney Phillips and Mr.
David Bassis rendered efficient service respectively
as secretary and interpreter.

I have, &c.
STUART M. SAMUEL.
Sir Horace Rumbold, Bart., K.C.M.G., M.V.O.

7ai

Footnotes

'An entirely different light is thrown on this matter in
the report of Captain Wright, who, on page 41, in speaking
of the election, says : "In 1912 the dispute between Poles
and Jews, assiduously encouraged by the Tsarist authorities,
came to an issue in the Duma elections. The Warsaw Jews,
by a neat but perfectly legitimate manoeuvre, got control of
the elections, and, with sardonic humor, returned to the
Duma a member of such kind that whenever the representa-
tive of the capital of Poland got on his feet the Duma
roared with laughter." Jagiello belonged to the "faction of
the Socialist party which had renounced Polish independence,
hence, far from being patriotic, the Jews had chosen as their
representative a man who had openly bowed to Russian domi-
nation. The Palish Socialists did not support Jagiello.

' and 'In the Letter of Transmittal, Sir H. Rumbold says:
"Sir Stuart Samuel would appear to be mistaken in his appre-
ciation of the part played by the Jews in the pre-war business
relations between Poland and Russia, and in the industry
of the former country. Whereas it is true that the goods
exported from Poland were to a large extent handled by tlie
Jews, only a small percentage of those goods were actually
manufactured by them. The cotton industry in Lodz owes
its development more to the Polish industrial community
of German extraction than to the Jews. The statement that
the initiative in business was almost entirely a prerogative
of the Jews is exaggerated. A case in point are the co-
operatives, which are exclusively Polish." Statistics compiled
before the war showed that only 33 per cent, of the factories
were in the hands of Jews.

* Even the Jews have almost without exception admitted
that their race in Poland has for centuries had the lowest
standing of living of all the residents of Poland. The recent
typhus epidemic was far more extensive among the Jews
than the Poles because the louse-carried disease flourished
amid the filth of the Jewish abodes. Captain Wright in his
report says : "This civilization of nothing less than half the
Polish Jews is not only far from European, but it is also
very primitive. It is the civilization of the age of Ezra and
Nehemiah in the fifth century before the Christian "

'A great distinction was drawn between those cases m
which the individuals who accepted office under the invaders
did so in order to lighten the impositions upon their fellow
citizens and those in which the offices were sought by persons
frankly anxious to desert the Polish cause. All cases of this
kind were tried for high treason, and the fact that the in-
dividuals here mentioned were acquitted is proof of the fact
that they did not turn against their country, but merely ac-
cepted distasteful positions in the interests of Poles.

' Though Sir Stuart Samuel here fully credits the unsup-
ported story of a young Jew he says on page 28 that "An

official statement issued on the 7th of April by General

Listovski, commander of the group, I find devoid of all
credence." In several cases he gives unsupported testimony
wliich "was proved to my satisfaction" without giving further
sources.

' Poland has general man and woman suffrage. In addi-
tion, the law provides for proportional representation, guar-
anteeing the representation of minorities. An equal number
of voters is in all cases entitled to equal representation. Vot-
ing is by secret ballot. There exists no reason why Jews
cannot by voting obtain the full representation that their
strength warrants.

" Though the Polish Government has in many cases taken
drastic steps against boycott movements and has removed
army officials because of their tolerance of boycotts, the
recommendation here given would cause the Government of
a free country to take a step backward to suppression and
reaction.

■ Sir Rumbold says : "I would point out that there exists
a national loan bank and that there is no difference be-
tween Poles and Jews regarding the business transacted at
the bank. Polish legislation makes no difficulties" with re-
gard to the founding of banks by Jews, so the latter are able,
if they need it, to start banks in which they have confidence."

32

The Captain Wright Report

ENCLOSURE NO. 2.

Sir,

THE Mission arrived in Warsaw on the 18th
September, 1919. Sir Stuart Samuel, the Chief
Commissioner, left on the 6th December, and I left
on the 18th December. This report was written be-
fore my departure.

The chief task imposed on the Commission sent
out to examine the condition of the Jews in Poland
was to enquire into any excesses committed against
the Jews that might be brought to the notice of the
Commission. But on enquiries into these excesses
I found, as might be expected, they were only the
expression of a mutual animosity. Therefore no
examination of the excesses could be complete un-
less we enquired into the nature and origin of their
animosity. But on enquiring into this deep and
ancient quarrel, I found no examination of it could
be complete unless we enquired into the history of
the Jews in Poland. One subject thus leading to
another, I wished, even at the risk of appearing
pedantic or presumptuous or superficial, to try to
understand and to explain, first, the past history of
the Jews in Poland ; secondly, the causes of the un-
paralleled anti-Semitic feeling existing there; and
lastly, those excesses which are the effects of these
violent feelings.

There was another reason for extending
the enquiry to these rather too-distant limits.
The Poles complained bitterly of foreign
Commissions meddling with their national
affairs without any acquaintance with the
hjstory of 'their past, as if they were savages
without any past history at all. This com-
plaint seemed to me reasonable and just; for
our own domestic questions, like the Irish
question, for example, could hardly be under-
stood by foreigners ignorant of and indiffer-
ent to our past history. This was another
reason for at least endeavoring to give this
scope to our enquiry, though time and other
qualifications might perhaps be insufficient.

West Jews and East Jews

Even at present, in spite of the large outflow from
the original reservoir into the Western world on
both sides of the Atlantic, three-fifths of the world's
Jews live in what was once the Kingdom of Poland.
A century ago, before the outflow began, four-
fifths or even nine-tenths, did. In the capital of
Poland, Warsaw, at least every third person is a
Jew, and there are 600 synagogues; in many pro-
vincial towns four out of five inhabitants, in some
even nine out of ten, are Jews ; nearly everything

printed that strikes the eye in the streets of such
small provincial towns, is not in our, but in the
Hebrew alphabet. Every village, every estate has
one or two Jews on it. At the most only one out
of every 200 people in the British Isles is Semitic ;
but in Poland, taking the whole country, one out
of every seven at least.

But it is a difference not only in quantity but in
kind. The Germans, placed as they are between the
Jews of Eastern and those of Western Europe, and
so able to see the difference, always distinguish in
their numerous scientific writings between y^hat
they call East Jews and West Jews, and these names
are convenient.

Language is the most easily discernible, as it is
the strongest proof, of the differences. West Jews,
in an overwhelming majority,' speak the language
of their country. East Jews do not: among them-
selves they speak, with slight variations in different
districts, a Middle-High German dialect, contemp-
tuously called jargon in Eastern Europe, and where
it survives in the East End of London, as Yiddish.
It is often treated as a debased form of German, but
it is nothing of the sort, any more than the language
of Chaucer is a debased form of English. It is a
mediaeval dialect, and still spoken by the peasants
of the Black Forest. The very word "Yiddish" is
the modern German word "Jiidisch," meaning
Jewish, pronounced with the correct mediaeval ac-
cent. «

To write this Yiddish, Hebrew characters are
used. Concurrently with it, Hebrew is used as a
religious language, and within the last generation
the Zionists have endeavoured to substitute it for
Yiddish as a popular language to write magazines,
conduct education, and to talk nothing else; but,
even as a religious language, Hebrew is not, as
among at least the majority of the West Jews, the
privilege of a few learned Semitic scholars; it is a
language that every educated East Jew learns and
in which the pious reads his sacred books with the
same zeal as the pious Protestant pores over his
Bible. The "Jewish Press" in Western Europe is
newspapers owned and edited by Jews ; but in East-
ern Europe it means daily newspapers printed in
these old Semitic letters, utterly different from
either the Latin letters used by Poles or Hellenic
letters used by Russians, and so singular and unique
in Europe as the only Semitic alphabet in use. Even
now many Polish Jews speak Polish with difficulty,
and only know this mediaeval German dialect and
this old Semitic language which is older than many
portions of the Old Testament, written as they were
when Jews had already abandoned Hebrew for
Aramaic ; and I am told that two or three genera-
tions ago this ignorance of anything but Yiddish or
Hebrew was quite common.

33

'The Jew in Eastern Europe," says an
Anglo-Jewish writer, "differs from the other
inhabitants not only in religion but also in
custom and language. Religion for the Brit-
ish Jews is only a matter of conscience and
tradition ; it is also for many Jews in Eastern
Europe also a question of manners and cus-
toms,"^ The many Jews he refers to are the
Orthodox Jews, the Chassidim (pious) who
constitute roughly (though the exact propor-
tion is disputable) half the East Jews. No-
thing like these East Jews exists among the
West Jews (or is even known to most of them,
I suspect), and the above writer was under-
stating the difference. The Orthodox Jews in
Eastern Europe are neither European nor
modern. The difference between West Jews
and Christians is, or tends to be (as anti-
Semites would maintain), a difference of relir
gion only as they belong or claim to belong
only to a different denomination. The differ-
ence between Chassidim and Christians is not
even a difference of religion, or even of nation-
ality, but one of civilisation; they differ to the
observation of the most superficial observer,
not in doctrine only, but in their way of dress-
ing, of living, of eating. Their dress— to take
the distinction that appears at once — is not
the same ; like their speech, it is mediaeval : a
long black gabardine, and a peculiar cap. They
wear beards and side curls, not because it is a
barber's fashion, but for religious reasons,
like other Orientals. Their standard of clean-
liness in dress and living is low, next to those
which Latin Christendom has always had just
because its origin is Latin. But, on the other
hand, questions of food are to them — as they
are to many Eastern castes — questions of
religion, and their standard of cleanliness, for
example, in the choice and the preparation of
meat is very much higher. I select these out-
ward differences because I could observe them
myself during the short period I was brought
into contact. But I am inclined, from a num-
ber of concrete cases that came before the
Commission, to agree with the Polish conten-
tion that their standards of conduct are also
'", very different, and, consistently with what
"else I have observed of them, neither Euro-
'pejan nor modern.

The resemblance between this small primi-
• tive Semitic civilisation,, so strangely pre-
■ served in Europe, and the great Semitic civil-
isation of Islam, struck me, even though my
knowledge of each is inconsiderable, and I
would not venture on this observation if it
were not confirmed by the authorities — -Ger-
man for the most part, I regret to say — which
I read on the subject. The rigid monotheism :
the subordinate position in religion of women,
evidently in earlier times an absolute exclu-
sion ; the absence of distinction between civil
and religious authority, the Rabbi supplying
both and wielding the greatest power: the

absence of distinction between civil and reli-
gious law, the sacred books supplying both ;
the existence of hereditary tribes of priests
called almost by the same name ; the simila-
rity of the calendars : the very schools where
boys sing-song their lessons from the sacred
books and the copious quotations from them
in the same sing-song which adorns all grave
conversation ; these mere outward points of
resemblance appear at once. Some of the
customs, such as keeping the heads of women
shaved and making them wear a wig or rib-
bons or false hair, appear absolutely savage.

The Chassidim are still the people of the Book, as
Mohammed, in the most illuminating phrase ever
spoken about the Jews, called them. For a book,
or rather a set of books, rule their whole way of
life. These are the Torah (what we call the Pen-
tateuch and the Greek-speaking authors of the New
Testament correctly translated into Greek as the
Law), every word, every dot of which is not only
sacred but has an absolute value and must be literally
carried out:^ on a lower level Nebiim (prophets)
and Ketubim (scripture) : and then a vast ency-
clopaedic work, the Talmud, written between the
second and sixth century of our era, and being, in
effect, a record of rabbinical controversies of the
previous six centuries. In Torah and Talmud the
whole of human knowledge is contained, and out-
side it there is no human knowledge worth having;^
and piety consists of the knowledge and study of
them and the execution of the ritual and customs
found or supposed to be found in them. Among
these ritual and customary rules the chief are the
rules of Kosher food (Kosher being the word our
Bible translators translated as "clean"), and the
Sabbath.

Torah, Nebiim and Ketubim have been transmit-
ted to Christianity to constitute the Old Testament
together with some of their prestige. But the
closest devotion to the sacred text and the strictest
Sabbatarianism of the strictest Protestants falls far
short of the literal, rigorous and elaborately legal
observation of the Torah by the Orthodox Jews.
I will give two examples, one of a rule of Kosher
(clean), drawn from the Pentateuch, and one of the
Sabbath rules.

"Thou shalt not seeth the kid in its mother's
milk." Therefore no butter can be eaten with meat.
Therefore, no butter or milk must stand on the
table at the same time as meat. Therefore, to avoid
any unintentional breach of the law, each house-
hold must possess a separate set of crockery, knives
and forks for meat and milk; and Chassidim, even
the poorest, do this.

Work is forbidden on the Sabbath. Therefore
no fire can be lit or extinguished on it. Therefore
nothing should be done which involves the possible
lighting or extinguishing of fire. Therefore smok-
ing is forbidden.

These customs, especially as to food and Sabbath,
and the ritual rules are not few, but form a large code,
the Shulkhan Aruch (Spread Table). The observa-

34

tion of them makes up the whole life of the Ortho-
dox who care for nothing else, and will suffer any-
thing rather than violate them. I can think of two
cases of excesses brought before the Commission,
one in which a Jew had been cruelly beaten rather
than sign his name on Saturday, writing being, of
course, a violation of the Sabbath ; the other when
a Jew had been badly mishandled by soldiers rather
than let them force a piece of meat that was not
Kosher through his teeth. Religion and morality
consist in the keeping of these ritual and customary
rules, and, whatever ''rationalising and "reformed"
modern Jews may say, outside these ritual and
customary rules there is no religion and morality
for the Orthodox.* The difficulties of life are in
avoiding any breach of them; for example, eating
an egg with a drop of blood in it. The perplexities
of life are in dealing with new cases ; for example, is
an egg, laid on the Sabbath, Kosher or is it not?

This civilisation of nothing less than half the
Polish Jews is not only far from European, but it is
also very primitive. It is the civilisation of the age
of Ezra and Nehemiah in the fifth century before
the Christian era when the books of the Old Testa-
ment were edited in their present form, materially
unchanged, but only made more rigid and sharp in
course of time.^ That their spiritual life was re-
stricted to the Torah, the Law and these ritual and
customary rules is, of course, the very criticism
made of the Jews by the Greek-speaking authors of
the New Testament, but I had never understood
that reproach until I had seen the system in full
swing, now as it was 2,000 years ago. Their very
antiquity made the Orthodox Jews the most in-
teresting people in Poland, and their Rabbis were
venerable with all the dignity of the East. But they
are ilot civilised in our sense of the word, and it is
impossible for Poles to amalgamate with them, and
difficult to mix with them, or even to frame com-
mon laws for them. Nothing could be more im-
pressive than this strahge preservation of this old
Setnitic culture, which is not only older than Euro-
pean civilisation, but is older than the civilisations,
Latin or Byzantine, now long extinguished, from
which European civilisation is itself derived. The
ridicule and contempt affected for it by Poles, and
many Jews who are not Orthodox, is shallow and
ignorant. But nothing could be more difficult to
associate with than a people who physically, men-
tally and morally are, and whose whole conception
and way of life is so very different.

The presence of such people as the Chassidim in
their midst must profoundly affect the minds of
ordinary people, especially a devout, rustic people
like the Poles. There is a general belief among all
classes of Poles that the Jews practice ritual mur-
der; for this there exists not the slightest evidence.
It is a myth and an improbable myth. For Ortho-
dox Judaism is not a religion of , mysterious rites,
less so itideed than Christianity, but a highly posi-
tive, defined, legal religion. But I think this myth,
strongly and widely believed as it is, the reflection
at this antique and oriental religion casts in the
minds of ordinary men.

As the Orthodox Jews now are, so were all East
Jews till the nineteenth century. Since then this
original nucleus, which had kept intact and un-
changed for scores of centuries, has shed off, aot
only the greater part of the West Jews (the White-
chapel Jews still refer to Poland in Yiddish as
tlome), but also the Polish Jews who . are not
Orthodox. These resemble the West Jews as we
know them in England, in having become European
(though, of course, the anti-Semitic thesis is that
they have not yet and never can become so), and
certainly in being, in so far as they are Eurojiean-
ised, ultra modern; for they have broker, with their
own traditional past and are not c mnected with the
traditional pa'^t of Europeans. The mair political
party oi the I'cj'ish Jews who are not Orthod(.'X is
knoWn, and for a very good reason, as I shall after-
wards explain, as the Nationalist or Zionist Party,
ai<d for cotivt tjience and to distinguish them from
the Orthodox, I shall call them all Nationalists,
though all do not belong to this Party. Roughly
speaking, and leaving out of account very many
shades of diir r^i ence, the Jews in Poland, who may-
.■■umber, according to the ultimate boundaries as-
signed to Poland, anything between three ^nd live
millions, fall under the head of either OrtV.odox or
Nationalist.

This division and nomenclature omits the very
small class of assimilated Jews, who are, however,
the highest class of Jews, and who are Polish in the
same way as the best kind of Jews in England are
English."

The East Jews, Nationalist or Zionist, are very
like the West Jews but more strict. Torah and
Talmud have both highest position, but not only do
they admit other forms of knowledge, but are
zealots of education. They respect Kosher and the
Sabbath, the twin pillars of Orthodoxy, in various
degrees, but to the Orthodox they are mere un-
believers. There is a deep cleavage between the
two. For the Nationalists consider themselve;, the
progressive section of Judaism, and to them the
Orthodox are backward and obsolete who are ridic-
ulous enough to consider it a mortal sin to write a
letter on Saturday morning or to eat a lobster. But
the Nationalists gain ground steadily. The services
in their synagogues have been "reformed" into
being very like services in Protestant churches.
Their Rabbis are very highly educated men, resem-
bling German parsons. There is the same difference
between an Orthodox Rabbi — who looks like a
Rabbi in Rembrandt's etchings — and a "reformecl "
Rabbi as there is between a devout Neapolitan
Monk and a philosophical Unitarian minister.

West Jews play a familiar part in the economic
life of the West, nearly always as men of affairs, and
almost exclusively as town dwellers.

But in Poland till within the last generation all
business men were Jews ; the Poles were peasants
or landowners, and left commerce to the Jews; even
now certainly much more than half, and perhaps
as much as three-quarters, of business men are
Jews ; in big towns (and I take, not statistics, but
the evidence most obvious to the eye) the shops at

35

times seem to be all Jewish. Warsaw, the capital
of Poland, is nearly half Jewish. In small towns
the preponderance is still greater, and in most
*owns, big or small, the East Jew is not only the
prosperous business man, he is the slum dweller,
living in unimaginable squalor and poverty, and
occupying almost all the slums. This is far from
true of West Jews.

Again, there is a still greater difference.
Poland is an agricultural country, but the
East Jews, unlike the West Jews, play a large
part in its country life. Every estate and
every village has its Jew, who holds a sort
of hereditary position in them; he markets
the produce of the peasants and makes their
purchases for them in towns ; every Polish
landowner or noble had his own Jew, who
did all his business for him, managed the com-
mercial part of his estate and found him
money. Till modern times it was actual law,
and in modern times a rigorous etiquette,
that no Polish noble, small or great, might
buy and sell. Even if he wanted to buy a
horse from a friend, he sent his Jews to do
it. Besides this, nearly all the population
of nearly all the small country towns is
Jewish, corn and leather dealers, storekeepers
and pedlars and such like. They are very like
— and exposed to the same odium as — the
Irish Gombeen man, the village storekeeper
who exploited, or was supposed to exploit, the
Irish peasant.

These small middlemen play a large part
in a country like Poland, whose economic life
has been artificially stunted by conquerors.
This is the sort of thing that happens, and I
quote it as an example to show the nature of
their activities. On market days these Jews
haunt the roads leading to the market and
buy their produce, a goose or a load of vege-
tables, from peasants and resell it again. This
sort of business and nothing else is their only
livelihood ; they are capitalists trading with
a capital of a few shillings. And this class is
as common in big towns as in the country.

For both town and country I think it a true
generalisation to say that the East Jews are
hardly ever producers, but nearly always mid-
dlemen. In Lemberg, with a population of
nearly 60,000 Jews, three-quarters of these
are small shopkeepers, hawkers, pedlars, or
engaged in any chance job they can get as
intermediaries. Only 25 per cent, are artisans
or prosperous business men. There are, of
course, in such millions of people, consider-
able exceptions: Galician woodcutters; in
certain places factory workers, though their
strict Sabbath rules and the dislike of the
Polish workmen keep them away from fac-
tories; artisans, too, in cheap furniture,
clothes and leather, but inferior in skill to
the Poles; and in other trades, too, but al-
ways tending to unskilled labour. But the

generalisation is generally true. The Lem-
berg figures perhaps give the right average
in towns ; in the country the average would be
even higher.

It is instructive to try and imagine what
England would be like under the same condi-
tions. Arriving in London, a stranger would
find every second or third person a Jew, al-
most all the poorer quarters and slums Jew-
ish, and thousands of synagogues. Arriving
at Newbury he would find practically the
whole town Jewish, and nearly every printed
inscription in Hebrew characters. Pene-
trating into Berkshire, he would find the only
storekeeper in most small villages a Jew, and
small market towns mostly composed of
Jewish hovels. Going on to Birmingham,
he would find all the factories owned by Jews,
and two shops out of three with Jewish
names. He would find at least half these
Jews almost as different from an Englishman
as an Arab, even in their dress and the cut
of their hair, and speaking among themselves,
not only the dialect of a foreign tongue, but
that foreign tongue itself the language of an
enemy. This is the picture the Jewry of the
East Jews presents, and anti-Semitic dis-
sensions are therefore very different in Po-
land to what they are in Western Europe.
The most resonant anti-Semitic dispute of the
last generation was the Dreyfus case. But
the small Polish town of Cracow itself con-
tains half as many Jews as in the whole of
France put together. If the Jews in France
had been so large in number, as different in
character, and as peculiar in position as they
are in Poland, that famous controversy would
have taken a very different" shape.

History of the Jews in Poland

A great quarrel has arisen in the present genera-
tion between Jews and Poles, each in their millions,
and, in trying to understand their present rela-
tions, which are very bad, I was compelled to
try and understand their past relations which
had been very much better, if not excellent.
Without, perhaps, the opportunity or the qualifica-
tions to do so, I was thus driven to study the past,
even at the risk of presenting both the opposite
faults of pedantry and ignorance, and all the more
so that each side seemed to me to be using against
the other historical arguments that were equally,
though differently, fallacious.

History may be an academic pursuit, but it ceases
to be so where it is used to justify very practical
measures. The anti-Semitic party in Poland pro-
poses to expel the Jews because they are strangers
uninvited to Poland, who have grown stronger by
Poland's weaknesses, and are now too numerous
for its safety. The Nationalist Jews want Home
Rule in Poland for the Jews because they form a
separate nation, whom long oppression has pre-
vented from asserting itself, but which now intends

36

to come to its own. But I venture to say that these
theories are common examples of history being de-
graded into the handmaiden of politics by men who
care very little about the past, and very much about
the present.

It could not be, and is not fortuitous, that till the
beginning of the nineteenth century the Jews in all
parts of the world, from China to Abyssinia, should
exist only in clusters, and in such great masses in
the region between the Baltic and the Black Sea,
where nine-tenths of the Jews in the world were
to be found. Polish Jewry was, in effect, Jewry
till then.

In the eighth and ninth centuries there was a
great kingdom of Tartars to the north of the Black
Sea — called the Chazars — of which a large, and that
the upper portion, were converted to Judaism. Tar-
tars are still the only people who show any inclina-
tion for conversion to Orthodox Judaism, and the
Russian Church had to take special measures to pre-
vent these changes.^ The chazars were broken by
the Slavs after two centuries and driven westwards
But they survive in a Jewish sect, who were recog-
nised as such by the Russian Government, and ex-
cepted from their measures of persecution — the
Charaites — who still celejjrate their synagogue ser-
vice in Tartar. Obscure as these origins are, there
is no doubt, from the evidence of coins, that Jewish
communities existed in Poland before either St.
Cyril brought Byzantine or St. Adalbert Latin civi-
lisation to the Slavs by converting them to Chris-
tianity.

This was the Jewish stream from the East.
Another came from the West, when Western Chris-
tendom, during that long offensive against Islam
and heathendom known as the Crusades, expelled
the Jews who seemed to represent the very forces
they were atttacking, those from the Rhine, where
the earliest and thickest settlements of these wan-
dering Semitic merchants existed, joined their co-re-
ligionists further east and these adopted the Ger-
man language, Judisch or Yiddish, of the new-
comers. Both streams had mixed largely with the
Teutonic and Slav races.

Therefore the Jews in Poland have been settled

' there between 800 and 1,000 years. Except for the

purpose of proving a point, they cannot be called

strangers there, nor can the Slavs be considered

very much more native than they.

From the documents of the thirteenth century,*
which do not create new but register existing con-
ditions, they are seen at their first real appearance
as a semi-autonomous corporation or community,
for which it is hard to find a name in English, for
the thing itself has never existed in England, where
the State, in the shape of the Crown, so early
crushed out all independent political organisations,
and gathered all public power to itself. But, of
course, such bodies are common all over central
Europe, and the Jewish community had the same
sort of independence as, for example, the free city
of Hamburg. Their position was exactly the oppo-
site of the English Jews, who were a mere sponge

in the hands of our kings to be squeezed for money
whenever the sponge was full. At their very earliest
appearance they are seen grouped around their
synagogues and rabbis, who exercise civil and re-
ligious authority, with a personal law of their own,
independent courts of their own, complete freedom
to travel and special protection in so doing, and
only a nominal dependence on the king. Even in
the twelfth century they are evidently an indepen-
dent political organism in mediaeval Poland, and as
Poland remained mediaeval till it perished, and in-
deed perished just because it remained mediaeval,
next to neighbours who were not, so the mediaeval
organisation of the Jews lasted to the end. The
Jews were ruled by their commissioners (waadim),
and the Polish kings dealt only with those com-
missioners and not directly with the individual Jews.
Owing to a. very uncritical view of the document
known as the Privilege of Casimir the Great, which
is a Magna Charta of the Jews, it is a favourite Po-
lish view that the Jews were admitted to Poland
by the mistaken generosity of the Polish kings and
the tolerance of the generous people. This is very
like saying that the Dukedom of Bavaria grew by
the generosity of the German emperors and the tol-
erance of the German people. These smaller political
organisms grew with the greater organism that con-
tained them and in mediaeval life were neither
junior in origin nor subordinate in right.

In its desperate efforts to centralise and unify
itself so as to resist its powerfully centralised neigh-
bors in the eighteenth century, this independence
was suppressed for a few years before the Russian
flood engulfed both Jews and Poles. But the Prus-
sian administrators found in 1732 this whole med-
iaeval system still working when they took posses-
sion after the Partition.

Economically, the Jews appear at the very
outset as dealers not as producers, nor even
as artisans, and chiefly dealers in money; in
course of time the whole business and com-
merce of Poland became theirs, and they did
nothing else. The Poles were knights and
ploughmen who fought and tilled, and the
merchants were Jews, and this monopoly
lasted till the present generation. The Jews
grew steadily in number because their stan-
dard of living was, and is, much lower than
that of the Poles; even now the Chassidim,
very often also those of considerable means,
live in the poorest way and multiply as rapid-
ly as a people with a lower standard always
do.

Socially they are, in Polish history, a despised
caste, exercising a despised occupation, trade. There
was also the closest alliance between them and the
innumerable nobility, great and small, who ruled
Poland till the end. "Every noble has his Jew"
was the Polish saying, and if he did spit in the face
of his Jew when drunk, the Jew did all the business.
This position of hereditary "body Jew" as estate
business manager of every Polish landowner lasted ,
till the present generation. I am informed that in

37

Polish literature the Jew appears as part of the
Polish people, a very inferior branch of it, it is true,
but still as part of it.

Mediaeval, men, seeing this independence, this pros-
perity, and thess numbers, called Poland the Paradise
of the Jews.

It is an explanation often given of what may be
called according to the point of view, the idiosyncra-
sies or defects of the Jews, that they have been an
oppressed and persecuted people. This is an idea so
charitable and humane that I should like to think it,
not only of the Jews, but of every other people. It
has every merit as a theory except that of being true.
When one thinks of what happened to the other "ra-
cial, religious, and linguistic minorities" of Europe in
modern times, say, the French Protestants or the Irish
Catholics, to take the first of numberless examples that
come to hand, the Jew appears not as the most perse-
cuted, but as the most favoured, people of Europe.
This mediaeval autonomy, enduring as it did through
modern times because it happened to be placed in a
country that always remained mediaeval, was the shell
within which the Orthodox Jews (and all Jews were
Orthodox till the nineteenth century) preserved their
ancient and peculiar civilisation untouched by the flow
and change of the world until the nineteenth century.
And this is wh}- they are so different, even now, to
the Poles. And this is why it is so difficult for Poles
and Jews to agree and become one people now. It is
not the bad luck of the Jews that has prevented them
"developing," as they call it; it is their singular good
fortune in the past because they never had, to return
to my two chance examples, any St. Bartholomews,
Repeals of the Edict of Nantes, Captures of Drogheda,
or Irish Penal Laws.

Even at present, in the twentieth century, the re-
moteness of the life of the Orthodox Jews from Eu-
ropean life and their separateness struck me again
and again in the evidence that came before the Com-
mission. I will give one of the most striking examples.

It is impossible to mix with Europeans without at
least knowing their calendar, the names of months,
and of the days of the week, or to mix much with
Europeans without using it to mark dates. Con-
versely, anyone who does not, and cannot use this
calendar to mark dates, and is hardly aware of it,
must have lived apart from European life.

A poor but worthy Jewish Rabbi from a townlet
in very desert Eastern territories came before the Com-
mission with complaints. On cross-examining him
as to dates, I found he only used, and only knew, the
old Semitic calendar of the Jews, and could not reckon
time in any other. His little community only used,
and could only use, the Hebrew months and year. He
knew no other.

The Jczus in the Nineteenth Century

The partition of Poland broke into and broke up
this curious Jewish life. In the nineteenth century the
original mass of Orthodox Jewry threw oflf body after
body, either as emigrants who constitute most of the
West Jews on both sides of the Atlantic, or the East
Jews, whom I have called for convenience National-

ists or Zionists. Ihese new bodies took to livmg,
feeling, and thinking as Europeans. (Though, of
course, the foundation of the anti-Semitic view is that
they never can ; and that under the Jew you always
find the Oriental.) This change shows itself at once
in man}- ways. For example, in the part played (for
good or for bad) in every sphere of life in the last
century, where before that time Jews had never been
heard of. Again, the Hebrew language then began
to reflect the change ; before that it had been used for
merely religious purposes, controversies on Torah and
Talmud as to how many brazen lavers there were in
Solomon's Temple, or whether the fat in an animal's
tail is Kosher or not. But from the beginning of the
nineteenth century it began to be used for every pur-
pose, literary or scientific. Again, a religious change
also set in ; synagogue services began to be "reformed,"
that is, a.ssimilated to Christian services, till, for ex-
ample, Jewish Rabbis in England dress like Anglican
clergymen and, with a singular want of humour, even
cease to be called Rabbis, but call themselves chap-
lains.

Political ideas also changed, or rather political ideas
entered the heads of Jews for the first time. For
even now Orthodox Jews care little for political ques-
tions ; not much as to who rules them, nor very much
how they are ruled, so long as their religious practices
are untouched. It was less with complaints about
pogroms and excesses that the Orthodox leaders came
before the Commission than with complaints about
Sunday closing, which discourages a strict observance
of the Sabbath.

But the strongest political idea of ,any, so
strong that it seems natural, nationality, and its
corollaries, like patriotism, take a different form
in East and West Jews. If an English Jew
is asked "Are you an Englishman?" he answers
"Yes" ; Judaism is to him a religion only. If
a Polish Jew (or almost any Polish Jew) is
asked "Are you a Pole?" he answers "No; I
am of Jewish nationality." So it is that the
anti-Semitic disputes in Eastern Europe are the
reverse of those in Western Europe. For ex-
ample, Dreyfus was an officer who said he was
as French as any Frenchman (it was his op-
ponents who denied he ever could be). At
present the Polish Government says it will ad-
mit Jews as field officers if they will sign a
declaration that they are of Polish nationality.
This they refuse to do.

Various causes have contributed to make this
difference, which is fundamental and deserv-
ing of the fullest analysis. French, English,
and American Jews are, or protest they are,
French, English, or American (100 per cent.
American, as they say). Polish Jews protest
they are not Poles ; they are only Jews, but
Polish subjects.

This is not only a legal point ; the legal attitude ex-
presses the real attitude. I am not sure whether I
have been able entirely to understand why the evolu-
tion of these Europeanised Jews has been different in
East and West, but some of the causes are apparent.

38

The East Jews have more cohesion, both from
within and without. They are more numerous and
more difficult to transform. Even where West Jews
form a mass, as in New York, they have come in
gradually, and been more fully influenced. Because
East Jews are more numerous, they are more pious,
and therefore more different; no man who has to
earn his living, least of all a poor emigrant, can keep
Jewish ritual rules. Sabbath and Kosher, or wear the
orthodox dress unless others do. From without, Pol-
ish society (in the wide, not the narrow sense) is more
exclusive because it has century-old traditions of ex-
clusion. The Jews to them are still what the native
is to the Anglo-Indian. Western European societies,
who have only known the Jews in any considerable
number for about a century, have not, or only again
in a relatively slight degree. If the upper half of the
Eastern Jews is European, the lower half, the Chassi-
dim, is not, and this lower half haunts the upper
half, and by the Poles the two halves are naturally
identified. West Jews do not drag this terrific tail
after them. No West Jew I have ever met is like
the Orthodpx East Jew, or even has any idea that such
people exist; otherwise, they would be less surprised
at the prejudice of the Poles.

Besides these particular, there are more general, pro-
founder causes. When orientals in a mass, both dis-
tinct and coherent, get European ideas, such as nation-
ality, patriotism, social equality, liberty, and self-gov-
ernment, they begin to think they are a nation to
whom their patriotism is due, and conversely that it
is not due to the Europeans from whom they ob-
tained their ideas ; that they are equal to these Euro-
peans, and that being treated as an inferior caste is
unjust; that if they have the right to be free and
govern themselves, then they will not be governed by
men who are not of their race, language, and religion.
So the very ideas benevolently sown by Europeans
spring up- again in a hostile, armed, and formidable
shape. More and more during the nineteenth century
the Jews had become not only a separate body, as
in the previous ages, but a body politically claiming
an independence as much as the Poles, and socially
complete equality. Finally, during the last few years,
these feelings crystallised into the formation of the
Nationalist or Zionist party, which is the strongest
party among the Europeanised Jews, all of whom, for
convenience, I have called Nationalists. They want
Home Rule, independence in Poland, and a national
home in Palestine.

Our Eastern empire offers the clearest analogies. It
is not fortuitous that the very same word "National-
ists" is adopted both in India and Egypt by orientals
who want self-government or independence from us.
There also it is those members of Eastern races who
have been Europeanised who get European ideas,
equality of man, self-government, and, deeper still,
patriotism and love of country, and their converse,
the desire of independence from the foreigner. The
very ideas that Europeans disseminate to any oriental
people may turn against them, and a partially-Angli-
cised Egypt rises against the rulers its oriental fathers
welcomed. So it is with the Polish Jews.

It is sometimes said assimilation will cure

this. Polish- Jewish quarrel. Full assimilation
will, in the sense of the assimilated Jews, a very
small number who are completely Polish, and
hardly Jewish, even in religion ; but what may
be called the semi-assimilation of the larger
masses of East Jews is the very cause of the
evil. When the Orthodox Jew puts aside his
black cap and begins to wear a European bowler
on the top of his head, there comes inside his
head new European ideas, that he wants a coun-
try of his own, made of men of his own race,
religion, and language, and not of Poles ; and
that he will not be treated as a native, an
inferior race. Why should he, if his new les-
son is that all men are equal?

But the Poles are more unfortunate than we.
There is no abstract European, 'here are only
particular nations. The Nationalists of our
Eastern Empire are at least only Anglicised:
Sir Rabindranath Tagore denounces English
culture only in the most exquisite English; the
very act of repudiation is a homage to what
he repudiates. But Jews in Poland have not
only been Polonised, they have been Russified
and Germanised. So that the Jews appear to
the Poles as the representatives of their op-
pressors.

For education is, of course, the easiest road
to European civilisation, and it is a road that
the Jews follow with a passionate eagprness.
For even at the lowest level, even the Orthodox
are educated ; otherwise they cannot be Ortho-
dox, the ideal of piety being, not an ideal of
conduct, as, for example, asceticism, but an
ideal of erudition, knowledge of Torah and Tal-
mud. They are the people of the Book; All
Jews can, and must, read and write and have
been an educated people (though educated, per-
haps, in what was not worth knowing) for
scores of centuries. A very large percentage of
Poles is illiterate. The neat, pretty house of the
Polish farmer is bookless ; the village Jew lives
in barbarous filth, but he has his Hebrew books
to read as much as he can, and the Chassidim
saint is the man who pores over them all day
while his wife attends to the shop. When the
Jew is Europeanised he transfers the allegiance
he had to Torah and Talmud over to educa-
tional text books and becomes the fanatic of
education. This paradox, that while an infe-
rior culture (I deprecate all intention of of-
fence), they are an educated people, explains : —

Firstly, why Jews were largely Russianised.
In Russian Poland Russian was taught in
schools, not Polish. Even when a Jew went to
a Polish school he only learnt Russian. There
are many Jews in Poland who know three lan-
guages, Hebrew*^ Yiddish and Russian, but
no Polish.

Secondly, why the Jews, especially the wealth-
ier, are still more Germanised. Russian Poland
had an inefficient and defective educational sys-
tem. Tsarism being opposed to all education,
especially to that of Jews. Germany, next door.

39

offered the Jews, if not the best system in the
world, the best at the price. As Yiddish is a
German jargon, it was easy to take advantage
of it, and all Jews who could afford it have
sent their children there for the last century.
The result is that the East Jews are the rnost
Germanised — though not pro-German — society
I have ever met outside Germany, and the Poles
say "Once a Jew, always a German."

Thirdly, why the Jews play so large a part
in Bolshevism. Bolshevism requires a vast ad-
ministration and propaganda, which in turn re-
quire that men shall at least be able to read and
write. But in the proletariat of Eastern Europe
only the Jews possess these accomplishments,
and therefore the administrators and propa-
gandists of Bolshevism must necessarily be
Jews. So much so that Bolshevism appears
at times to be almost purely a Jewish move-
ment. But the Commission had the oppor-
tunity of studying it very close at hand on
the Eastern frontier, and in that part of the
world at least this was certainly not the case.

The Nationalist movement, though the full and con-
scious expression of this movement as a party pro-
gramme is quite late, is one great root of the dispute
between the Jews and the Poles. The other great
root was that not only have the Jews grown modem
in the nineteenth century, but the Poles have too.
Their social life was once as mediaeval as their political
life. Just as their ancestors had been knights and
ploughmen, they remained landed proprietors and
peasants. But towards the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury — especially in Russian and Prussian Poland,
where they were excluded from all offices — they took
to business and began to trench upon the Jewish mo-
nopoly. This is the other great root of the dispute.
This struck the Jews upon their sensitive nerve, their
love of money aggravated by centuries of exclusive
enjoyment, just as the Jewish Nationalist movement
struck the Poles upon their sensitive nerve, national
and racial pride, exasperated by a century of oppres-
sion. This economic change was fiercely resented by
the Jews, and very often by criminal means such as
arson. The co-operative Polish societies in the coun-
try which displaced the local Jewish dealers were often
attacked; one of the Jewish Nationalist leaders bit-
terly denounced the Poles to the Commission, because,
as he said, a generation ago the Poles had none of the
business of their own country, but now they had at
least twenty per cent. So much does the past rule the
present; Jews and Poles, modern though they may be,
consider their old privileges as natural rights. The Jew
claims a right to all the profits, and the Pole to kick
the Jew whenever he feels the inclination.

The Feud Between the Jews and the Poles

Though the Tsarist policy, in Poland as elsewhere,
was to set one race against another, during the nine-
teenth century their relations were not strained, and
the Jews fought with the Poles in the last insurrec-
tion of 1863. It was only twenty years ago that the
quarrel began and the excesses brought to the notice

of the Commission flow from this quarrel. As soon as
the two races were released from the pressure of a
foreign conqueror at the Amiistice the Poles flew at
the Jews.

The Tsarist Government drove the Jews out
of Russia and tried to make "one great ghetto
of Poland." The Russian Jews were particu-
larly rich, "the Litwaki" as they are called, and
much more enterprising and intelligent than the
Polish Jews. The Tsarist Government in pur-
suance of its invariable policy, favoured the
same Jews in Poland whom it persecuted in
Russia. For example, Jews were forbidden to
own rural land in Russia; but in Poland, the
Russian banks lent them money on extrav-
agantly favourable terms so that real estate in
Warsaw is largely Jewish. The Litwaki openly
professed themselves the partisans of conquer-
ing Russia deliberately talked Russian, and still
do to Poles, most offensively I thought; and
organised the Polish Jews — who at first were
adverse to them — as a separate body. The
beginning of the movement is clearly marked
by the foundation of the Jewish press, for a
new press means a new point of view. This
press set to work openly to fight against Polish
autonomy.

It is easy enough — after the event — to blame the
Jews for being on the Russian side. But why should
they not have been? The Polish Jews are not Poles;
they are Jews. The Peace Conference may make them
Poles in 1919; but the Congress of Vienna in 1815
made them Russians. It is a pity they cannot always
switch from one to the other to suit the decisions of
statesmen, and after being good Russians for the
nineteenth, become good Poles for the twentieth cen-
tury, but it is excusable.

The attachment of a great number of 'Jews in
Poland to Russia is sincere, no less than the attach-
ment of many to the soil of Poland, where they can
trace their descent for centuries. But Russia is the
promised land for most Jews; their material home
as much as Germany is their spiritual home. It is a
rich land where wealth can be reaped in sheaves
without a struggle, instead of a poor land like Poland
where it can only be gleaned with difficulty. It is a
land where the Government may be hostile, but the
people are not unfriendly. If Russia is opened to
the Jews, the Polish Jewish question may solve itself ;
the Jews who were pumped into Poland by the Tsarist
Government will stream back there and now sweep
along with them very many of the Polish Jews.

The Poles answered this Russian movement by the
anti-Semitic movement, orgianisfed by Mr. Roman
Dmowski. The Polish press became anti-Semitic and
attacked the Jews, and has continued to do so with
incredible violence. The worst anti-Semitic agitation,
say, for example, a section of the French press during
the Dreyfus case, is a breath next to this storm,
which blows and rages uninterraittently and ex-
presses as much as it excites the hatred of the Poles.
All evil, from the loss of Danzig to the large blue
flies in the butchers's shops, comes from Jews, and

40

all Jews are evil, usurers, bloodsucRers, corruptors,
traitors, swindlers,^ liars, profiteers, ritual murderers,
blackmailers, assassins and Bolsheviks. Variations
on these themes crash every day from the whole
orchestra of the Polish press. The Commission had
some experience of it in the bucketful of abuse that
was poured on Sir Stuart Samuel as a Jew, and which
he received with perfect equanimity.

Meanwhile the separatism of the Jews — not the
Orthodox, who have never cared at all about politics —
took shape in the formation of the Zionist or Nation-
alist Jewish Party, which includes the majority of
the Europeanised Jews.

At present the doctrine of the Zionists or Nation-
alists (the names are interchangeable) is "We Jews
have race, religion and language (though which
language. Yiddish or Hebrew, we are not quite sure)
therefore we are a nation. All we need is a coqntry.
Our country is Palestine and until we can have it as
a national home we want to be organised as a nation in
Poland. Being tolerant and up to date Jews can
be strict or lax, as they please, and, unlike the Orth-
odox, we cannot think it a sin to write a letter on the
Sabbath or to eat lobster at lunch." Their party
programme in Poland is to have all Jews on a separate
register. The Jews thus registered are to elect a
representative body of Jews, with extensive powers of
legislation and taxation; e.g., it could tax for purposes
of emigration. This body to be handed over by the
Polish State, a proportionate amount of money to
spend on Jewish charitable and financial institutions.
Besides this separate organisation, a number of seats
proportionate to their numbers to be set aside in every
local and in the national legislature. A sixth or a
seventh of the Polish Diet to be occupied only by Jews
to be elected only by Jews. Some Jews also demand
separate law courts, or at least the , right to use
Yiddish as well as Polish in legal proceedings. This is
the practical programme, but the ambitions of the
advanced section' is the national personal autonomy
granted in the Ukraine by one of the ephemeral
governments of the Ukraine, the Ukrainian Central
Rada, on 9th January, 1918, and called the Statute of
National Personal Autonomy, of which I have a copy.
It organises the Jews as a nation with full sovereign
powers; the Ukrainian banknotes were printed in
Yiddish as well as in Ukrainian.

If the Jews in England — after multiplymg their
Aumbers by twenty or thirty — demanded that the
Jewish Board of Guardians should have extensive
powers, including the right to tax for purposes of
emigration, and that a separate number of seats should
be set aside in the London County Council, the Man-
chester Town Council, the House of Commons, and
the House of Lords, to be occupied only by Jews
chosen by Jews; that the President of the Board of
Education should hand over yearly to the Jews sums
proportionate to their numbers; if some were to
demand the right to have separate Jewish law courts,
or at least to be allowed to use Yiddish as well as
English in the King's Bench and Chancery Division;
if the most advanced even looked forward to a time
when Bank of England notes were to be printed in
Yiddish as well as in English, then they might well

find public opinion, even in England, less well disposed
to them. If West Jews are more welcome than East
Jews in the countries where they find themselves,
they also have smaller pretensions.

In 1912 the dispute between Poles and Jews, assidu-
ously encouraged by the Tsarist authorities, came to
an issue in the Duma elections. The Warsaw Jews,
by a neat but perfectly legitimate manoeuvre, got
control of the elections, and, with sardonic humor,
returned to the Duma a member of such a kind that
whenever the representative of the capital of Poland
got on his feet the Duma roared with laughter. The
exasperated Poles retorted with a national boycott on
business with the Jews. It was the only way the
Poles, as a subject race, could attack another subject
race, the Jews. The Polish co-operative societies in
the country had already hit the Jewish country dealers
hcird; another motive was now added for supporting
and extending them. In town every effort — ^but with
little success — was made to put Jewish shops and
merchants out of business. For example, a Jewish
chemist would find his customers hooted by small
crowds outside his shop, or his customers would find
that small notices had been pinned to their clothes as
friends of the Jews. His wholesale firm would tell
him that Polish physicians had written threatening
not to recommend the products of their firm if they
supplied him with goods. Polish newspapers published
the names of those who sold land to Jews, and they
were ostracised. A sort of boycott still continues,
and undoubted instances were laid before the Com-
mission. But now the Poles are in power they have
other arms to attack them with, and therefore rely
less or little on the boycott as it was.

But the high day and triumph of the Jews
was during the German occupation. The Jews
in Poland are deeply Germanised, and German
carries you over Poland because Jews are every-
where. So the Germans found everywhere
people who knew their language and could
work for them. It was with Jews that the
Germans set up their organisation to squeeze
and drain Poland — Poles and Jews included —
of everything it had ; it was in concert with
Jews that German officials and officers towards
the end carried on business all over the country.
In every department and region they were the
instruments of the Germans, and poor Jews
grew rich and lordly as the servants of the
masters. But though Germanised, the accusa-
tions of the Poles that the Jews are devoted
to Germany is unfounded — just as unfounded
as the charge, so often made in the English
press by Poles, that all the troubles between
them and the Jews are tricks and inventions of
the Germans. They have no more loyalty to
Germany — the home of anti-Semitism — ^than to
Poland. The East Jews are Jews and only
Jews. But this is too fine a distinction for the
ordinary Pole, who looks on all Jews as the
allies of his worst enemy — "once a Jew, always
a German." But the Jewish political leaders
never went to Berlin to pay their court to the
Kaiser like so many Polish party leaders and

41

grandees, lay and clerical. The Jews, and
especially those to whom it was so profitable,
naturally welcomed the arrival of the Germans,
and at the Armistice there were Jewish demon-
strations in favour of the Germans and against
the "Polish goose," as they termed the newly-
arisen Polish White Eagle. The very day the
German garrison was disarmed, in November
1918, the excesses against the Jews began all
over Warsaw ; everywhere assaults on them
took place.

It had seemed certain that one of two, the
German or the Russian Empire, must win, and
that the Jews, who had their money on both,
were safe; but the despised Poland came in
first. Even now the Jews can hardly believe
■ in its resurrection, and one of them told me
it still seemed to him a dream.

The Excesses of the Last Year

The events of the last twenty years' had
brought the Poles to look upon the Jews as
national enemies, with an abhorrence almost
as furious as we ever looked upon the Germans
during the war. In November, 1918, the Poles
became independent again, but independent
without a government, which still had to be
created. Given a hated minority, and given
an absence of government, could it be other-
wise than that such a minority should suffer?
The Jews have suffered very very much dur-
ing the last year, and unfortunately there is no
exact measure of suffering. However, I esti-
mate that not more than 200 or 300 have been
unjustly killed. One would be too many, but,
taking these casualties as a standard with
which to measure the excesses committed
against them, I am more astonished at their
smallness than their greatness.

At least a hundred times as many have been
slaughtered during the same period in the
Ukraine, and perhaps quite as many in Hun-
gary or Czecho-Slovakia. I think the ex-
planation of this smallness is to be found in
the explanation of an undoubted and para-
doxical fact which strikes everyone.

The worst offenders are soldiers, and the worst
soldiers in this respect are those of General Haller's
aiTny, which was lari^ely recruited in America, and
next to them the Posnanians or German Poles. So
the real Polish soldier is the least guilty, and the
most are the soldiers who come from the educated,
progressive countries, especially America, which has
been the first to protest against these excesses.

Poland is a peasant country, and the Polish soldier
is a peasant in uniform; these peasants are too illiter-
ate to be touched very deeply by anti-Semitism, and
have lived too long with the Jews not to know him
quite well and that he is not always what he is now
said to be. But American and German Poles, coming
into this atmosphere of hatred, are inflamed by it.
They take the rhetoric as the exact truth. For them
the Jew is what they are told he is.

Herein, I think, lies the explanation of why the
excesses have been so small. In a nation of pea-
sants, the peasants (though by no means attached to
the Jews) are not really hostile. What the Polish
peasant soldier likes is taking from the Jew the
money or property which the Jew has so long ex-
tracted from him. Hustling a Jew at a railway
station means going through his pockets. Nowhere
except, owing to special causes, in Galicia, have there
been peasant risings against the Jews. In Ukraine
there were, and thousands have been massacred. This
accounts for the small number of deaths in Poland.

The violent excesses are the work of towns, but
chiefly of soldiers. The leader of the Jewish Party
in the Diet distinguishes between "pogroms and ex-
cesses in many cities and towns of the eastern ter-
ritories occupied by the Polish larmy," and those
"that have occurred in a weaker form in Poland, but
not less insulting to Jewish national and human
honour."^" This is a convenient division. One
category is the alleged pogroms at Lemberg, Pinsk,
Minsk, Lida, Vilna, and Cracow, and the other
categftry the general attacks on the Jews. It is also
convenient to examine the second category first.

From November, 1918, onwards for many months
there was no real Government in Poland; even old-
fashioned crimes that- have died out, like highway
robbery and outlaw bands, appeared again, and the
shadowy Government that existed was far too busy
with the ideals of democracy to bother with them.
One force there was in Poland, the army, but that
was a spontaneous creation anterior to the existence
of government. It sprang, so to speak, from the
soil of what had always been a warrior nation, and
was, and is still, the most anti-Semitic bpdy in Poland.

The army is anti-Semitic : —

Firstly, because the Jews evade military service ; by
bribery, desertion, or some other device they escape all
service at the front. The formation of an army is
the great achievement of Poland's first year, for the
Poles have great martial and patriotic traditions, and
their army has formed and maintained itself under
conditions that would have dissolved most others.
The Jews in Poland have little but commercial tradi-
tions, and are not Poles. The Polish Tommy, how-
ever, who has to stick it at the front without food or
clothes, in the torturing cold of the Russian winter,
is not likely to enter into these philosophical considera-
tions. All he knows is that the Jew gets off.

Secondly: the officers are drawn from the most
anti-Semitic class, the nobles and the intelligentsia.

Thirdly: Anti-Semitism is covertly but assiduously
encouraged as a protection against Bolshevism.

The connection between Jews and Bolshev-
ism is a highly controversial topic. The Com-
mission had however the opportunity of study-
ing it at first hand in the Eastern territories
which had been in the hands of the Bolsheviks
for a few months. There the administration
and propaganda, for reasons I have already
mentioned, was largely Jewish; but it was also,
and especially its leaders, Polish. . The attrac-
tions of Bolshevism are little theoretical.

42

Bolshevism spells business for poor Jews; in-
numerable posts in a huge administration ; end-
less regulations, therefore endless jobbery; big
risks, for the Bolsheviks punish heavily, every
offence being treated as a form of treason ; 'but
big profits. The rich bourgeois Jew also
manages to get on with it in his own way, "Jii-
dische Weise" as the Jews call bribery. Many
Jews who are by no means poor, try at the
present time to escape into Russia, so fine are
the business prospects. Such a desirable state
of things must naturally have charms for the
Jews in Poland, and in spite of repeated and
constant accusations, the Jewish political
leaders have never publicly repudiated Bol-
shevism, from which I conclude that they must
have many sympathisers with Bolshevism
among their followers. But undoubtedly the
Poles also take a large part in the movement.
It. is difficult to form exact estimates, and I*
am not certain of my conclusions. But while
the Commission was in Warsaw, a ready-made
Bolshevik Goverment, prepared to begin opera-
tions, was arrested there. Of the nine mem-
bers, five were Polish, one Russian, and three
Jewish. I thought this might perhaps fur-
nish, the basis of a calculation. The Jews
are not more than one-sixth of the popu-
lation, but had one-third of this ready-made
Government. That was twice their fair share,
and I think this is generally their share of
Bolshevism.

But whatever the truth is (and I am far from
certain I have reached it), the average Pole and espe-
cially the army, looks on Bolshevism as an entirely
Jewish invention and affair. The soldiers themselves
on the Bolshevik front make Jews taste the food Jews
I set before them before daring to eat it, for fear of ■
poison. They therefore close their ears to the Bol-
shevik agitator, as either a Jew or- an emissary of the
Jews, and the anti-Semitic leaders believe that anti-
Semiticism has been the shield of Poland against
Bolshevism. It is certainly remarkable that Poland
is the country where general conditions favour Bol-
shevism most, and where it has succeeded least. The
officers naturally encourage these sentiments, for the
murder of officers is usually one of the first measures
of Bolshevism.

The use made of anti-Semitism was very interest-
ing in an .alleged pogrom of Jews at Lodz brought to
our notice soon after our arrival. On receiving
complaints, very exaggerated complaints, of very
horrible doings we went ourselves to Lodz and found
the course of events was something like this. A very
serious unemployment riot, instigated by Russian
Bolshevik emissaries, had taken place ; in a conflict be-
tween the police and the rioters, the police had been
defeated and lost as many as six killed. The authori-
ties had felt uncertain of the military, and had not
dared to use them. In this difficulty rumours were
spread in barracks that the riot was a Jewish one,
though in fact it had been no more Jewish than
Christian, with the result that in the evening a great

many assaults on Jews by soldiers took place in the
Tewish quarter. The anti-Semitic rumor turned the
balance.

This imputation or suspicion of Bolshevism, whether
true or not, weighs heavily on the Jews ; it is a justifica-
tion or pretext for every violence and every exaction,
house-searching or arrest or imprisonment, and was
the answer, genuine or fictitious, to the majority of
complaints made to us.

Sweeping generalisations are easily exceptional, but
they are unavoidable, and I think it a true one to say
of this category of excesses: —

Firstly : that the excesses have mostly come form
the soldiers or the gendarmerie ; roughs and civilian
crowds join in, and educated Poles look on and ap-
plaud. I saw myself a Jew arrested and a whole crowd
of soldiers and boys start kicking and cuffing him.
This incident, I think, evidently disclosed the principle :
if anyone lays hands on a Jew — legally or illegally —
everyone else will willingly assist or connive.

Secondly: that they have steadily diminished; from
November to April was the worst period, but in
spite of great improvement they are still not un-
common.

From November 1918 to April 1919, one might al-
most say that the Jews were outlawed, if there had
been much law. But there was not much law for
anyone, and for the Jews only very much less than for
anyone else.

These excesses were what we call assaults and bat-
teries. They would range from rough horse-play; es-
pecially on railroads and stations, to blows and some-
times very severe beatings. Sometimes, of course, the
most violent assaults, as throwing a Jew out of a
moving train, would lead to death. In out of the way
places there must have been some murders, and in
some cases outrages on women and murders. For this
first period it is difficult to judge; though rare, there
were certainly some crimes of this sort.

Overcrowded trains and soldiers on leave travelling
were the most ordinary occasions, but the same sort
of thing took place extensively in the streets on very
slight pretexts. Beard cutting was an almost universal
sport and still goes on largely, though this is often
treated as mere rough fun. But the long beard worn
by the Orthodox Jew, though ridiculous to others, has
a semi-religious meaning to him and is worn in ac-
cordance with Talmudic precepts, and his religious
convictions are entitled to respect as much as those
of anyone else.

The assaults were accompanied by a great deal of
pilfering, robbery and petty blackmail: frorn fright-
ening an elderly Jew at a railway station into emptying
his pockets, to entering Jewish shops and pillaging
them. I am inclined to look on this as the main
motive.

In the military zone all these evils existed in a far
worse form. In big towns, mostly Jewish, the troops
were more careful. Even there, in capitals like Lem-
berg, pillaging and blackmailing went on incessantly.
But in out of the way places, chiefly under the pretext
of forced labour, they very often reduced the Jews
to a state of slavery. Conditions varied with the
temper of the officers.

43

The Polish army has been quite unprovided; <even
now they have not got great-coats for the winter,
and it is common enough for men to desert, steal some
clothes and join again. They have been compelled to
help themselves from everyone, and naturally they
have done so from the Jews more than from anyone
else. The Polish Tommy looks on plunder as part of
the routine of military life. They are very fond of
being photographed with a glass of wine in one hand
next to a table loaded with plundered rouble notes.
The Mission has several of these photographs; honest
yokel faces, quite unconscious of wrong-doing.

It is very difficult to come to an exact and general
statement. Perhaps during this period this one would
be true on one side: —

Polish soldiers are compelled by necessity to fall
into bad habits at the front. All troops, even those
with good habits, are difficult to keep in order when
away from the front. Polish troops are proportion-
ately difficult to keep in order when away from the
front. In both places the Jews suffered more if not
exclusively.

They suffered still more in Russian Poland at the
hands of the gendarmerie, the military police, very un-
derpaid and armed with great powers. A British
Police Mission is at present in Warsaw advising the
Polish Government; this is an admission that the
condition of the police was not satisfactory. But I
say very deliberately, and relying on Polish, not Jew-
ish evidence, that the conduct of the gendarmerie was
such that in many parts of Poland they exercised a
kind of brigandage. The best that can be said of them
is that, as brigands, they endured no competition, and
showed very great courage and skill in keeping order,
especially against the Bolshevik agitators, who infested
Poland, and who were very determined and bold. The
whole population suffered from the gendarmerie, and
they treated the Jews as prey who must always pay
up, on every possible pretext, and who were lucky to,
escape without a broken head. Some, but not many,
deaths must be put to their account.

In the case of civilians, soldiers, and gendarmerie
it was the habit of the Poles to insult Jews of every
kind, including perfectly innnocent Jewish ladies, in
public places. This fashion was that of the Polish
ladies and gentlemen as it was of the common people.

During this first period the authorities, such as they
were, exerted themselves but little. The great com--
plaint of the Jews is not so much what was inflicted
on them as the constant consciousness that they had
no legal protection.

During the second period, from April on-
wards, the condition of the Jews has steadily
and rapidly improved. Tfie state of affairs I
have described exists in a very diminished
degree at present: to what extent it is very
difficult to determine exactly. Hearing com-
plaints is very like having a bell rung within an
inch of one's ear: it becomes difficult to deter-
mine how great the sound really is. In what
was Russian Poland the Jews have legal protec-
tion, but not to the extent to which they are
naturally entitled or to which the treaty creat-
ing Poland gives them. Some very grave — but

quite rare— failures of justice (what, in effect,
were unpunished murder or attempted murder)
were brought to the notice of the Commission.
The "prejudice," as English lawyers say, is
■ always very strong against the Jews. In
criminal and civil justice, in the exercise of any
authority whatever, the law, when in their
favour, is enforced reluctantly and slackly, and
very often not at all ; when it is against them,
it is enforced promptly and rigorously. The
higher you go the better is the treatment, and
the lower you go, the worse is the treatment.
They are not treated fairly, even in the matter
of their legal rights ; but they are far from per-
secuted. Neither have they the full police pro-
tection to which they are entitled. I limit these
remarks to Russian Poland. Even now, if I
were an Orthodox Jew, long-bearded and black-
coated, and found myself in the same train as a
party of soldiers, I should travel — as even the
most reverend orthodox Rabbis do — under the
seat.

The authorities still have the greatest diffi-
culty in enforcing order in all cases, so much
does the anarchy of the last few years still
prevail. At Brest-Litovsk no less than three
companies armed with ball cartridge, and not
less than six machine guns, surrounded our
train to arrest two soldiers who had stolen two
fur coats. A non-commissioned officer and
a few men could do it elsewhere.

The instructions given to the Commission order it
to adjudicate on the degree of responsibility attach-
ing to the Polish Government for these excesses, and
on this point the instructions are peremptory.

The responsibility of the Government may be fixed
by these considerations.

In what was Austrian Poland, where the Poles have
long had a sort of autonomy under the Hapsburgs,
and where the administration thus built up under ex-
cellent traditions exists, few complaints of excesses
at the present time have reached us. The complaints
all come from Russian Poland, where the Poles were
always excluded from government and where an ad-
ministration was built up under the Tsarist tradi-
tions. It is either with inexperienced Poles or Poles
trained in these Tsarist conditions that the present
Government has to work. Therefore the first consid-
eration is that it has not had the proper instruments.

Poland as yet has got no frontiers, no single
system of currency, or law, hardly any system
of taxation, and though ruined by five years'
warfare on its territory, has to carry on an
onerous war. The Government has far greater
problems than the Jewish problem, and has
never really grappled with it. The second con-
sideration is that it has hardly had the op-
portunity.

The Government has inflicted a good deal, though
an insufficient amount, "of punishment; these punish-
ments it has never published, for fear of Polish public
opinion. This, I think, discloses its real attitude. It

44

would like to stop these disorders, but it runs the risk
of being upset if it does. Any measure that can be
construed into favoring the Jews exposes it to attack,
and the JewS could never have been completely de-
fended without special measures. Poland has been
endowed with the infallible blessings of democratic
institutions, and, as long as it possesses them, its
Government cannot be required openly to defy the
v/ill of the Polish people; indeed, it would violate the
very first principle of its constitution if it did. The
third consideration, therefore, is that the Government
has hardly had the power.

The responsibility for the excesses against the Jews
falls most of all on the Polish intelligentsia, the edu-
cated, well-to-do class; then next, but less, on the
masses. But last of all on the Government, which,
since the spring, has with earnest, though insufficient,
exertions tried to stop these excesses.

The Alleged Pogroms

The second category of excesses are the alleged
pc>groms at Lemberg, Pinsk, Lida, Vilna, and Cracow.
The account I read of these seemed to be, after enquir-
ing into them, mixtures of rhetoric and evidence, so
perhaps the best method is to make a bare finding of
fact.

Lemberg

In the beginning of November, 1918, the Ukrainian
forces, a small body of men, entered Lemberg. In
Ukrainia the peasantry, who were Ukrainian, had
massacred the landlords, who were Polish, and the
greatest mutual hate prevailed. The Jews of Lem-
berg, numbering 60,000, acknowledged the Ukrainians,
and treated them as masters of the town. When the
German troops revolted all over Poland at the time
of the Armistice, and the whole edifice of German
organisation fell to the ground in a day, a few Polish
officers, a Major A. and others, raised a small vol-
unteer force in Lemberg numbering between 1,000
and 2,000, which was composed of boys, roughs, and
criminals, and even women in uniform. For nearly
a fortnight they fought in the streets against the
Ukrainians and, on the arrival of a similar force
similarly raised by General B. from Cracow, drove the
Ukrainians out of the town. This was really a
splendid feat of arms.

During this struggle the Jews proclaimed
themselves neutral ; but, thoi^h I do not think
they gave any armed assistance to the Ukrai-
nians, their neutrality was highly benevolent
to the Ukrainians and probably helpful. They
thought the Ukrainians would win.

Major A. and General B. only kept their scratch
armies of 2,000 or 3,000 together by promising them
forty-eight hours' plunder of the Jews. I am inclined
to think that of three-score Jews murdered during this
period, some at least were killed by accident in the
street fighting, but at least the majority were mur-
dered, and these murders were accompanied by a
proportionate amount of robbery and outrage. On

the second day these troops unfortunately found a
petrol store in the Jewish quarter, and used it to burn
the quarter down.

Some of the murders were committed because some
of the soldiers were criminals. One motive, however,
both of the murders and the burning, was genuiiie
fear of this vast Jewish population surrounding this
small body of Poles.

A large number of the civilian population of Lem-
berg, wealthy, middle-class people, joined in the plun-
der of the Jewish shops.

Pinsk

A Polish officer. Major C, found himself last
spring in occupation of the town proper. He had only
a very small detachment of men; the Russian Bol-
sheviks had only just been driven out, and their lines
were quite close. The Jewish population of Pinsk
showed a great deal of coldness towards Major C,
who was suspicious of their relations with the Bol-
sheviks, and, I think both irritated and anxious; he
had posted proclamations that any unauthorised meet-
ing would be punished by death.

On a Saturday afternoon, the Zionist Co-operative
organisation had a perfectly proper, authorised busi-
ness meeting. This meeting took place in the offices of
the Zionist organisation, which is very anti-Polish.
After the meeting had ended and been formally closed,
a great many members of the Co-operative association
remained in the same room talking together: other
members of the Zionist organisation, including ladies,
were in the rooms at the same time. This collection
of people must have presented the appearance of a
meeting, and I think the members remaining in one
room were numerous enough technically to constitute
a meeting. There was some insolence in this and the
previous behaviour of the Jews: Sir Stuart Samuel
pointed out to the witnesses that their authorised
meeting itself had been a breach of the Sabbath and
therefore a grave religious offense.

Polish soldiers and gendarmerie who hjad been
pressing for forced labour, and probably using this as
a blackmailing pretext, entered the building (I am not
sure whether by accident or owing to a previous de-
nunciation) and arrested and searched those present.
They no doubt obtained a considerable amount of
money for themselves in this search. They then took
50 or 60 in number to the headquarters of Major C.
and reported that they had arrested the members of
an unauthorised Jewish Bolshevik meeting. Major
C, who had almost at the same hour heard of a Bol-
shevik success near the town, and was preparing to
evacuate it, gave orders for their immediate execution.
This was done without trial of any sort and even with-
out taking their names. One person at least of those
executed had been swept into the crowd of prisoners
by accident in the street. The whole incident only
took two or three hours.

Owing to an accident the Commission did not
see Major C, but I think, though he acted with
great brutality, a court must have acquitted him as
being within his strict rights. Real fear was one

45

of his motives. But, on the other hand, he would
hardly have acted with such promptitude if others
than jews had been in question.

The gendarmerie who made the arrests and re-
ported that they had found a Jewish Bolshevik
meeting were chieily responsible; their motive was
no doubt to avoid answering for the money they
had obtained in the search. Their subsequent con-
duct was even worse. The Jewish ladies arrested,
but exempted from the execution, were kept in
prison without trial and enquiry. They were
stripped naked and flogged. After the flogging they
were made to pass naked down a passage full of
Polish soldiers. The Jews arrested, but excepted
from the execution, were next day led to the ceme-
tery where those executed were buried, and made
to dig their own graves, then, at the last moment,
they were told they were reprieved ; in fact, the
gendarmerie regularly tormented the survivors.

We were informed, but have no exact information,
that the heads of this gendarmerie were subsequent-
ly found guilty of various crimes.

The victims were respectable lower middle-class
people, school teachers, and such like.

Lida, Vilna, Minsk

These towns were all stormed by the Polish
troops, who drove out the Bolsheviks; Lida and
Vilna in April, Minsk in July. The Bolsheviks
occupied them all from almost the beginning of the
year. The Bolshevik administration in all of them
was directed by Poles, but the Jews tooks their
usual large part in the Bolshevik administration,
and the Jewish population was, in consequence, as
usual, favoured or managed to get favoured ("Jud-
ischer Weise," as the Jews call bribery). The Bol-
shevik chariot was drawn neither by terror nor by
plunder : there were no executions except military
executions of deserters by the Chinese executioners.
The Bolshevik administration was a parody of the
Tsarist administration, which itself was little better
than a parody. I think it was probably a good ex-
ample of Bolshevik rule when it is not frightened
into showing its teeth and claws.

In Lida and Vilna the Jews who, of course, are
Litwaki in the eastern regions, were very well dis-
posed to the Bolsheviks because they were Rus-
sian: any Russian Government, even the worst,
rather than Polish Government, even the best. But
nowhere in any of these three towns was there any
organised resistance by the Jewish community,
who in Vilna number more than 60,000, to the Po-
lish troops. In Minsk the}' were less well disposed
to the Bolsheviks', for the Bolsheviks had been there
three months longer, and they had begun to experi-
ence the usual efifects of Bolshevism in towns —
nothing to eat.

Both in Lida and Vilna the Bolsheviks had or-
ganized small "garrison guards," a small local Bol-
shevik garrison. Young Jews had largely joined
this because the garrison guards had such excellent
opportunities of doing business, especially dealing

and speculating in food. In both Lida and Vilna
these Jews of the garrison guards fought, and fought
hard, against the Polish troops.

Lida was taken first. A small detachment of
Polish troops entered the town, did some fighting
and plundering, and retreated. Before the Poles
could arrive in. force the next day the Bolsheviks
evacuated the town, but the garrison guard which
remained fought the Poles. Lida has a population
of 12,000, of which 8,000 are Jews. When the Poles
arrived in force they plunde;red the town : more
than 30 non-combatant Jews were killed— among
them a considerable allowance must be made for
those killed by accident in street fighting. Others,
quite innocent, were made responsible for the shots
fired from their houses, and executed ; and others,
equalh- innocent, murdered. The same allocation
of deaths must be made in Vilna, where the total
number was more than twice as high. I am inclined
to think the Polish troops started plundering as
soon as they entered Lida on both days. The plun-
dering was accompanied by a great deal of violence
and brutality. In billets at Lida — but not during
the fighting — a Polish soldier was murdered by a
Jew, and with those horrible mutilations practised
by Jewish Chassidim murderers and which is one
of the many ways in which they do not seem to be
European.

This murder and the resistance of the garrison
guarxl had very much excited the Polish troops, who
surprised Vilna a few days later and drove out the
Bolsheviks. The events of Lida were repeated, but
on a very great scale and with much greater fury.
There can be no doubt, in spite of the perfectly sin-
cere denials of the leaders of the Jewish community,
that many Jews fought with the Bolsheviks as they
were retreating. The Polish military authorities
were genuinely alarmed, and believed they were
threatened by the whole of this vast Jewish popu-
lation, as their arrest of several thousand Jews,
some of whom are still interned, shows. There can
be no less doubt that the majority of the Jews sum-
marily executed, very often from genuine error, for
having- fired on Polish troops or assisted the Bol-
sheviks, were perfectly innocent. There was the
same plundering, violence, and brutality as at Lida,
but on a scale proportionate to the large Jewish
population, and lasting about three days.

At Lida, certainly, the military authorities subse-
quently held enquiries, but, as might be expected,
it was not possible to identify the murderers or exe-
cutioners.

At Minsk, General Jadwin, of Mr. Morgenthau's
Mission, was with the Poles, and special measures
were taken by the Polish commanders. Further,
the Jewish population had been longer under Bol-
shevik rule and had learnt it meant no food. In
spite of this several Jews were killed.

But the behaviour of the Posnanian troops indi-
cated the feelings of the Polish soldiers towards the
Jews better than any general description. Knowing
their habits the Polish Command had ordered them
to pass right through the town without halting.

46

This seemed to them so gross an infringement of
their rights that they disobeyed orders, stopped in
the market place, and plundered the Jewish shops.

Cracow

Though pogroms at Cracow were reported, this
was not the case. The Jews, remembering Lem-
berg, armed themselves and rather terrified every-
one else.

The death, execution, or murder of innocent peo-
ple cannot be justified. But not even the military
commanders can be made responsible for the events
at Lida, Vilna, and Minsk. A strong Government
might have sent Major C. (of Pinsk) to trial, but
I think an impartial court must have acquitted him ;
and a strong Government, disregarding the eminent
services to Poland of Major A. and General B. (of
Lemberg), might have taken disciplinary measures
against them. I believe General B. was for a short
time declared to be not responsible for his acts.
But last winter, so far from there being a strong
Government, there was no Government at all.

It seems undesirable to use the word "pogrom,"
because the actual meaning of the word (whatever
its etyrnology may be) implies direction or organ-
isation by the .Government. Pogroms were mas-
sacres of Jews instigated and arranged by the Rus-
sian Government.

Nevertheless, the murders of Lemberg are a
shocking outrage, the disgusting cruelty of which
is' not at all expressed in a bare finding of fact; and
the Pinsk executions, in their harsh brutality, are
little better.

But the horrors of Bolshevism, the atrocities of
the Ukrainian risings, and the brutalities of the
struggles between the Germans and Russians — next
to which these events are small and trivial — have
dulled the consciences of men in Eastern Europe;
they have supped full of horrors and can no longer
be moved. Otherwise I am sure that the Poles
themselves would have protested against these
cruelties.

1 Future Condition of the Jews

All these physical excesses will cease on demobili-
sation : they are the effect of war, or of a state of
war. And the more disgraceful manifestations of
hatred to Jews in public will cease when strangers
begin to come and go in the country; otherwise the
Poles will get a bad reputation in the world. They
will be shamed into behaving.

But the situation of the Jews will hardly be a
happier one. Every morning, an ordinary Jewish
gentleman — in Warsaw very like what he is in Lon-
don — reads papers that cover his race with con-
tumely. He and his womenfolk never deal with
Poles except to be treated with insolence, and his
children come back from school with their ears
ringing with abuse. Every independent Polish in-
stitution, is as determined to oust the Jews-, the
national enemy, as in England, we, during the war,
were to oust the Germans. Jewish professors, how-

ever able, have been turned out of universities;
Jewish doctors, however famous, from hospitals.
Every university, by some means or other, exerts
itself to keep down its Jewish undergraduates to a
minimum. Tramway companies will not have Jew-
ish employes, and so on throughout the whole range
of Polish life. The only body who does act fairly,
and against whom no charges brought by the Jews
were proved, is the Government, but even they do
it more- or less secretly. In the matter of army
contracts, trading, and import licenses, and so on,
the very numerous accusations brought by the Jews
were groundless.

This is what I meant when I said that the Poles
now had other means than the boycott : the boycott
itself now wages less fiercely, because the lesson
has been taught. The Poles do, not now want the
lesson, and they do it naturally.

The boycott now is, probably, what it always was.
The Jews are middlemen, merchants, dealers, shop-
keepers, and not producers. The bigger ones, the
richer, who are mostly Europeanised, are protected
by natural causes; they are too good at business,
with their centuries of. business experience, to be
affected by it, or feel the competition of the Poles.
Boycotting then must always be an expensive pa-
triotic luxury. But the smaller, the poorer, who are
mostly Chassidim, can and are dispensed with, and
suffer greatly from it. I will discuss their economic
cohditiofi later. '

But with regard to the general position of the
Jews in Poland, a broader and higher view must
be taken.

Poland will be mostly Polish, but not entirely; it
will have many minorities : the Ruthenian, now pro-
tected by a semi-autonomy; the Jews, aspiring to
autonomy; the White Russian, still unconscious,
but who one day may also dally with self-determi-
nation — to say nothing of Germans and Lithuanians
looking to their brethren across the frontier. It will
be far from homogeneous. If a plebiscite were
taken to-day in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, as
to whether Warsaw should be Polish, yes or no,
the answer might quite easily be no.

These minorities it must reconcile : it is a condi-
tion of its existence. It can only do so by giving
them all a fair and strong Government. Other.wise
it will be distracted in time of peace and deserted
in time of war. As for the Jews, a powerful and just
administration, in spite of an enduring social preju-
dice, would make them loyal to Poland, which is
what they are far from being now. The Chassidim,
who act in accordance with the Talmudic maxim,
"Pay not homage unto a new king," are only wait-
ing to see whether the new king will last; and such
an administration would take the wind right out of
the sails of the Jewish Nationalist Party.

There is a school of very eminent Polish politi-
cians who think that these minorities can be either
driven out Or bullied out of themselves, and this
idea is really the source of anti-Semitism. But
though persecution or emigration might largely dis-
burden Poland of its Jews, and probably will, there
will still be millions left. These statesmen, hovv-

47

ever eminent, have not till now had any experience
of affairs, because Poland has not till now become
a State. But they will find that working on men
is very different from working on paper and ink;
that the Jews are supple but tough adversaries ; and
that a race planted in Poland a thousand years, how-
ever inconvenient, cannot be eradicated without a
convulsion that would be almost fatal.

Recommendations

The instructions given to the Commission enjoin
them to report on the general economic condition
of the Jews, and it is on this side that the Jews
might really be given assistance.

The great mass of poor Jews are Chassidim ; the
wealthier are Europeanised and far more lax: for
wealth rapidly destroys piety, and, lest I be thought
flippant, I record that this observation is not my
own, but that of the most eminent Rabbi in Warsaw.
The Chassidim form an immense mass of squalid
and helpless poverty, the existence of which would
be a great problem, even if the relations of the Poles
and Jews were perfectly harmonious.

For these poor Jews are all dealers, as their
ancestors have been for centuries : and for
their particular kind of dealing, capitalists as
they are with a capital of a few shillings, there
is every year less and less room. The Jew in
the country who lives by lending a few
roubles to a peasant and taking a chicken as
interest, or who buys a load of vegetables and
resells them, or is a pedlar; the Jew in the
town who is a hawker, a tout, or in some
small middleman's business, these have great-
er and greater difficulty in making a living.
There must be millions of such in Poland.
The co-operative society and store, and the
bank drive them more and more out of busi-
ness in the country, and more modern meth-
ods of distribution in the town; and this is
likely, now the economic development of Po-
land is no longer to be artificially restricted,
to go on faster and faster. It is they who
suffer from the boycott, because it excludes
them from all kinds of occupations — tramway
employes, for example — of no great skill,
which they are capable of following. And
they cannot emigrate : how can they get a
living in a foreign country when their sole
means of livelihood is bargaining in Yiddish
and Polish ? The best proof of this is the way
they are sweated in semi-unskilled trades
when they do emigrate. They are hardly ever
producers : on this point everyone is agreed,
and the Zionist Congress say the same as M
Dmowski. Poor Jews cannot go into fac-
tories, partly because of their Sabbatarian

principles, partly because Polish workmen
will not work with people whose personal
habits are so unclean. When they are arti-
sans they are unskilled, or almost unskilled:
cheap tailors or similar trades. The result is
that in towns it is they who fill the sweating
dens, as sweaters or sweated, and as such are
familiar to us, because they play the same
piteous part in the East End of London.
Furthermore, they are also driven into all
sorts of illicit or fraudulent practices, and I
think the Poles are right when they complain
that too large a proportion of convictions for
such offences are Jewish.

They are unfit for the modern economic
world, not in consequence of any fault of their
own, but in consequence of a long historical
past ; in this respect (but in this respect only)
they are comparable to the negroes in the
United States, whom a long past in African
forests or in American plantations, unfitted to
take their place in the modern world when
they are turned out into it, and who present
an analogous problem in the United States.
Booker Washington, who did so much for the
negro, called his gospel by the very modest
name of the "gospel of the toothbrush," and
always insisted that keeping clean, learning a
trade or some occupation 'of physical skill, or
suchlike humble lessons, which education, in
its ever-loftier flights disdains, was what the
negro really required. And this is what the
enormous mass of Orthodox Jews really re-
quire; but as the average intelligence of the
Jew and the Negro are not only different; but
stand at the opposite ends of the scale, there
is very much more prospect of succeeding
with them.

The enlightened East Jews recognise this, but I
doubt whether West Jews do, or could easily be got
to recognise anything so contrary to their fixed
ideas as that any Jews exist who are unfitted for
the modern economic world. But no one else can
help these poor people, who engrossed as they are
in the practice of their strange and age-old religion,
will look with suspicion on anything that does not
come to them from their co-religionists and R'abbis.

The Commission of which I have the honour of
being a member was appointed in consequence of
representations made by the Jewish community in
Great Britain, and the sole recommendation I ven-
ture to make is that the same community be invited
to study this side of the subject.

I have, &c.

P. WRIGHT.

Sir Horace Rumbold, Bart, G.C.M.G., M.V.O.

»See the "Jewish Chronicle," August 1, 1919, p. 23. 'See L. Stein,
"Die Vorschriften der Thora," 1904. ' See Graetz, "Geshichte der
Juden." * See H. Cohen, "Das Problem der Judischen Sittenlehre. "
^ See Graetz, "Geschichte der Juden." •* For a full but partial account
of the whole process, see "Die Juden der Gegenwart," by A. Ruppin.
Judischer Verlag, Koln, 1911. 'See "Die Rassenmerkmale der Juden,"

by Fishberg, Ernst Reinhardt, Munich, 1913. 'See "Die General
Privilegien der Polnischen Judenschaft," by P. Bloch, J. Jolowicz,
Posen, 1832. ' See the Resolution . of the Fourth Zionist Congress,
August 19, 1919. "See Mr. Grunbaum's declaration adopted at the
Fourth Zionist Conference, Warsaw, August 19, 1919.

48

Typical Hymns of Hate

and a Few Other Voices

AN EXAMPLE OF MODERATION

Prince Casimir Lubomirski, the former pro-Ger-
man burgomaster* of Warsaw and the present Polish
Minister or Ambassador to the United States, de-
clares shame-facedly that every native of Poland of
good character, is by the Polish Constitution, a citi-
zen, and any immigrant coming into Poland can be-
■ come a citizen in the same way as he can in the
United States, except that the period of probation
is ten instead of five years. Prince Lubomirski
further insists that Poland does not" discriminate be-
tween citizen and citizen, and that all are equal be-
* fore the law and all are free to do as they please and
to go their own way as long as they do not violate
the laws of the country. According to this princely
gentleman of Polish habits, there is actually no Jew-
ish question in Poland,, for the Polish Constitution
provides for the emancipation of the Polish Jews.
The gentlemen in Washington have listened to this
explanation of his Polish Excellency and are
astounded. On the one hand there are authentic
reports reaching this country daily to the effect that
the Polish people are crazy with Jew-hatred, and
that they are busily engaged in pogroms and in all
forms of Jew-baiting, and on the other hand there
is an ofificial declaration on the part of the accredited
Polish Minister to the United States in which he
says that the Jews in Poland are emancipated and
are free to do as they please as long as they do not
violate the laws of Poland. Prince Lubomirski is
the only Polish representative abroad who has the
audacity, nay the impudence, to tell the most shame-
ful lies regarding the treatment of the Polish Jews.
The well-known Polish musician, Casimir Stojow-
sky, in an article published in this month's "North
American Review" is going one better. To him,
Poland is actually paradise, a blessing to humanity,
a blessing to civilization and a blessing to all the
Poles and to all those who live in Poland.
' We presume that there is a specimen of humanity
that can best be characterized as prize-liars, and that
the Polish representatives abroad personify best
this specimen of humanity.

The Polish representatives abroad know very
well that among the three million Jews in Poland
there is not one who holds an official office or mu-
nicipal office, that the Jews are actually excluded
from participation in the management of the State.
The Polish representatives abroad know very well
that the Jews in Poland are excluded from most all
the industries and are also driven out of trade and
commerce. The Polish representatives abroad know
perfectly well that there is an organized social eco-
nomic boycott between the Pole's and the Polish
Jew, called into being some fifteen years ago and
making rapid strides, not only in Poland proper, but
in all the countries occupied by the Polish military.
The Polish representatives abroad know perfectly

well that the Polish Jews are being robbed and
beaten every day in the presence of the Polish
police, they know that there is no protection for the
Polish Jews, they know that each and every Polish
Jew must give away part of his poor income to the
police, if he wants to be safe in the streets or wants
to be insured against beard pulling, or any other
pogrom-like activity of the Polish ruffians. The
Polish representatives abroad know that the Polish
academic authorities do not admit Jews to the Po-
lish universities, because they are Jews, and that the
Polish government is doing its utmost to outdo
Czarism. They know that all the outrages perpe-
trated by old Russia against the Jews are child-play
in comparison with the appalling crimes committed
by the Polish government and the Polish people
against the Jews. If the American people knew
only one-tenth part of the crimes committed by Po-
land against the Jews, no Pole would dare to show
his face in this country. The Polish representatives
abroad know that even the Spanish inquisition has
not committed so many crimes against the Jews as
Poland is committing now, but still they have the
audacity and impudence to assert that all is well
with the Polish Jews, that they are not discrimi-
nated against, and that their rights are guaranteed
by the Constitution. We know that the rights are
guaranteed by the Constitution, tut to the Poles
the Constitution of their own country does not mean
anything? To them the Constitution is just a scrap
of paper, and it is so because the Poles, a demoral-
ized and degenerated people, are a nation without
honor, and without honesty, and they are the only
nation among all the re-established eastern Euro-
pean nations who have started their new career by-
committing crimes and outrages against national
and religious minorities. It is obvious that a po-
gromist people, like the Poles, will do anything to
hide their crimes for the time being and that their
representatives will act like prize-liars and lie away
the blue from the sky in order to gain a momentary
success. But one cannot fool all the people all
the time. The day will soon come when these
Lubomirskies and Stojowskies and other Polish
prize-liars in the western countries will be recog-
nized as such and their assurances will no more
carry weight than those of the Prussians under the
Hohenzollerns. Poland born in crime and sin will
go under in a sea of crime and sin.

— Front "The Sentinel," the American Jewish
Weekly, Chicago, July 23, 1920.

* The truthfulness of this type of journalism may be
judged by this reference. There was no "pro-German
burgomaster" of Warsaw under the German occupation,
but a regency Council was instituted, composed, among
others, of the archbishop of Warsaw and Zdzislav Lu-
bomirski, who was quite distantly related to the present
Minister of Poland to the United States.

49

POLISH REVOLT IS NEAR.

SAYS JUSTICE LEVY

N. Y. Jurist, in Paris, Likens Army to Mexican
Bandits — Tells of Frequent Pogroms

By C. F. BERTELLI,
Special Correspondent of New York American

Paris, Aug. 11 — Poland is less fit for self-govern-
ment than the Philippines, and the Polish army is
in worse shape than the Mexican bandits. So as-
serted Justice Aaron Levy, presiding Justice of the
New York Municipal Court, returning here from
Warsaw this morning. He gave me a statement de-
scribing the conditions in Poland as "absolutely in-
credible," adding:

"Giving Poland her independence was the worst
mistake of the makers of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Polish people do not know the first rudiments
of self-government. The great mass of the people is
illiterate and unintelligent and is unable to use the
franchise. The people live in terror and oppression.
The Polish treatment of the Jews must be seen to
be believed.

"By day and night miniature pogroms are exe-
cuted throughout Poland. By an edict from War-
saw not one Jew is permitted to be a farmer or to
work on the public utilities. As a result their land
has been confiscated and they have been driven en
masse into the small towns and cities. There, utter-
ly dispirited and hopeless, they abjectly desire peace
at any cost, preferring the Soviet regime to the pres-
ent government, which is universally hated.

"In any event there soon will be a revolution in
Poland. For if the government does not withdraw
I am positive that the peasants will rise en masse
and kick it out.

"When I left Poland Sunday the Soviet Army
was thirty miles from Warsaw and advancing rapid-
ly. No preparations were made for the defense of
the city. When I return to America I intend to
ui^ge by every means in my power the intervention
of the United States to save the millions of Jews in
Poland from extermination."

• — New York American, August 12, 1920.

THE IDEALS OF POLAND*

By His Excellency, HUGH GIBSON,

American Minister to Poland

When I went to Poland a little over a year ago,
for the first time, or rather a few months before
I went there, it was a country without a govern-
ment, practically a howling wilderness from end
to end, a country without any organized railway
system or distribution of food or any of the normal
facilities of modern life. To-day there is a very
distinct contrast to that time. Orderly government
is maintained throughout all the territories held by
the Polish Government. The railway system,

while not yet perfect, is rapidly getting better.
Food distribution is improving day by day, and al-
together there is a decided progress. And, in spite
of the sufferings of the past six years — su£feritlgs
that we can hardly understand — the progress of the
past few months has been sufficient, not only to
keep up the high morale of the Army and the civil
population, but to key them to a higher pitch,
which gives us every reason to hope that Poland
will pull through, overcome all her obstacles, and
establish herself as a center of orderly government,
that is essential to the maintenance of order and
peace in eastern Europe.

* From an address delivered at- the inaugural luncheon
of the American-Polish Chamber of Commerce and In-
dustry, New York, May 27, 1920.

THE CURE OF POLAND'S EVILS
By HENRY MORGENTHAU

If American Jewry wants to cure the evils of Po-
land they must get at the root of it. Sending one
or two million Jews to Palestine will do little good.
The evil consists in allowing the Jews in a town to
follow one or two pursuits. Where there are 5,000,
perhaps 1,000 of them could make an honest living,
but 5,000 must cheat each other or starve. They
must be given schools of instruction. They must
change their mode of life. It will take a year's in-
tensive study to find out how to do it, but it would
be a most creditable achievement for those Jews
who have benefited by liberty in this country.

— From a Speech Before the Judaeans, New
York, December 14, 1919, and Reprinted
from the New York Times of December
15, 1919.

PATRIOTISM

Secretary, the American Polish Chamber of Com-
merce, New York.

My Dear Sir:

In reply to your circular letter* of August 30th,
I beg to inform you that I am not interested in
domg busmess with Poland, although I was myself
born at Warsaw.

But having been informed last year, while in
Paris, how the Polish people were persecuting the
Hebrew race of which I am proud to be a member.
I have no confidence nor desire to have any business
association with the Polish people.

Therefore, you will kindly eliminate mailing any
further advertising matter to me.

ISIDORO GelbTRUNK,

67 Worth Street.

*A letter sent out by the American-Polish Chamber of
Commerce drawmg attention to business opportunities in
Poland.

50

IF WARSAW FALLS

Editor Globe : — You wonder what will happen if
Warsaw falls. Here is my guess, based upon a
-pretty fair understanding of the Bolshevist mind.
The Polish Army will have been annihilated long
before Warsaw is reached. When that is accom-
plished the purpose for which Soviet Russia mobi-
lized its army, much against its will, shall have been
achieved. They will, therefore, evacuate Poland.
Meanwhile the Polish proletariat, freed from the
<lespotism which made them the gendarme of allied
imperialism, will have established their own govern-
ment. Warsaw will surrender — ^to the Polish
Soviet.

What will the Allies do? Why, open trade with
Soviet Russia. Morris Zucker.

New York, July 9.

—New York Globe, July 13, 1920.

MORE POGROMS BY BEATEN POLES

Editor Globe : — ^Reports of pogroms and mas-
sacres perpetrated by the treacherous, cowardly
Polish hordes upon the Jews, in their hasty retreat
"before the Soviet armies, are again flooding the
Jewish newspapers. (The English press is silent
on such news, as usual).

A bloody pogrom was organized in my own
native town, Bobruisk, with every home pillaged
and the women ravaged in the open in broad day-
light by the blood-thirsty Polish beasts. My own
people may have become victims of some Polish
assassin's hand. The imperialistic clique of the
Allied Powers have with shameless hypocrisy
raised the cry that Poland is being crushed by the
Bolsheviki, that Poland is being enslaved by Rus-
sia, 'that Poland's independence must be safe-
guarded, and that we must come to her rescue.

The piassacres of the Jews by the Polish military,
and the persecution of the Jews by the Polish Gov-
ernment officials did not annoy the allied rulers in
the least. In fact, it seems as if they wouldn't give
a whoop if the whole Jewish population of Poland
were put to slaughter, so long as the Polish junkers
and black .hundred kept themselves amused, and
satisfied to be the "buffer state" between western
"civihzation" and "culture," and the Bolsheviki's
dangerous doctrine of "No work, no eat" to be ap-
plied to all husky, healthy fellows.

In spite of the whining protestations, and even
the threat of a hoi}' war upon it by the militaristic
clique of the Allies, the Soviet government must,
and no doubt will, completely disarm the Polish
brigands, even as we would take away the gun
from a dangerous criminal, notwithstanding the
pleas of his fr'ends to leave the weapon with their
comrade.

Charles Golosman.
New York, Aug. 10.

—New York Globe, Aug. 18, 1920.

CONDITIONS IN POLAND

To the Editor of The World : — Allow me to express
my admiration of the most accurate and truthful
analysis of Poland and her traits by your corre-
spondent Mr. Arno Dosch-Fleurot in today's
"World." If there was ever "a guest for a while
who sees for a mile," it is this genius of a journalist
who is a worthy representative of your, esteemed
paper.

As a member of the Jewish race who had the mis-
fortune of being born and raised in that country
and subject to the oppressive and cruel methods of
the Poles' dealing with any one who is unfortun-
ate enough to be at their mercy, I cannot but regret
the fact that my beloved U. S. A., of which I have
the honor of being a citizen now, has listened to
the yelp of the treacherous and always imperialistic
Poland, and so generously extended to her its help-
ing hand and good-will, of which she is unworthy.
There is but one thing in the victorious outcome of
the war for democracy that will always make me,
and thousands of others who are still under Po-
land's heel, regret the sacrifices we have offered for
that great and worthy cause, and that is the con-
sequent independence granted to Poland, which is
to her a license to mistreat and persecute all people
of other nationality under her rule. I. H. L.

Brooklvn, July 11.

—World, July 22, 1920.

SIR STUART SAMUEL,

He Puts Responsibility for Outrages up to the
Polish Government

Sir Stuart Samuel is at the head of the British
investigating commission, which, after investigat-
ing Jewish conditions in Pojand, placed the blame
for the bloody pogroms upon the Polish Govern-
ment. The report brings shocking details of bru-
tality displayed by soldiers in persecuting the Jew-
ish population, and cites numerous cases where
Jewish women were stripped naked and flogged
mercilessly without cause.

— From the Press, Long Beach, Cat. This is
the caption that mas published in hundreds
of papers throughout the United States,
■ivithout change, beneath a Keystone Syndi-
cate picture of Sir Samuel.

GIBSON'S OPTIMISM ON POLAND

It is perhaps safe to say that no Grovemment,
since orderly governments were established, has
been faced with so many serious problems, at one
time. But to my mind the essential thing is not the
magnitude of the problems, but the manner and the
spirit in which they are approached. And it is in
that phase of the matter that I find ground for
optimism.

— From an address, "The Ideals of Poland,"
by His Excellency, Hugh Gibson, American
Minister to Poland.

51

BOERSIANER SENDS AN OPEN NOTE TO
PRINCE LUBOMIRSKI, POLISH MIN-
ISTER IN "united STATES

By BOERSIANER

Chicago, Aug. 12 — To Poland's Minister at Wash-
ington, Prince Lubomirski : — Excellency :

It is reported you will solicit from the United
States another loan for your country. To the $100,-
000,000 already loaned by the American Govern-
ment and the $50,000,000 odd advanced by private
.\merican creditors to your people and their repre-
sentatives you will ask that a fairly large sum be
added.

'S'our Excellency knows that in purely money
matters financiers are subjective, not objective, and
that political economy, as such, does not, in the ab-
stract, concern itself about the moral or religious
phases of a community. The former look to their
security and interest. The latter to the thrift of a
commonwealth.

But you must also be aware that when the moral
attitude of a government and the religious prejudice
and fanaticism of a people are of a nature to impel
resentment on the part of many and important lead-
ers in world finance ; when the thrift of a nation is
seriously jeopardized by murdering and plundering
one-fifth of that nation's useful and thrifty citizens
— then finance and political economy must inter-
vene.

Religions Difference

There are in your country 3,000,000 patriotic
Poles who differ in their religion from the rest of the
populace. The difference is neither organic nor
structural. It is supplemental. Yet, slight as it is,
it has been made the incentive — or the excuse — for
assassination and pillage of the minority. Children,
women, old men and invalids as well as strong
men have been wantonly butchered and ruthlessly
robbed for no other reason than that they were
Jews.

These butcheries and robberies find no parallel
for cruelty and co\yardice in the pogroms under the
old regime in Russia, for, under czardom, the gov-
ernment made at least some attempt to prevent and
to stop them. But in your country your government
deliberately planned and executed them, specifically
in Lenrberg, Lida, Vilna and Pinsk. In the last
named city the awful massacre was absolutely a
military murder — all the murderers wore the Polish
uniform.

You know what I write is fact, know that the
appalling record is to be found in the report of the
British Commissioner to Poland to investigate the
nameless slaughters. Thousands of innocent crea-
tures have been killed, maimed, their property
stolen, at the direct instigation of your Government,
by Polish soldiers, Polish fanatics, Polish profes-
sional murderers and thieves ; victims who loved and
served Poland in war and in peace ; whose ancestors
have lived in Polish territory for centuries ; the most
part of which were industrious artisans; the minor-

ity of which were skillful financiers and knowl-
edgeous economists, for whom Poland was in sore
need; murdered and robbed, as I say, for no other
rea.son than that they were Jews.

Crimes of Free Republic

And these crimes (at which even Russian czardom
had been horrified) committed in the new Polish
republic, in (at length) the free and- independent
Poland yearned for by the liberty-loving people of
the world generally!

I will admit to you I was worrisomely discon-
certed when for your first Prime Minister you chose
that great pianist and puny-minded and peasant-
prejudiced Paderewski. One could not converse a
quarter of an hour with that incomparable musician
and brainless man without hearing from him some
stupid calumny of the Jews.

His selection for Premier had been Homerically
grotesque had it not symbolized the outrageous
views and feelings of your governing class toward
3,000,000 Polish citizens ; had it riot been indicative
of what followed in the way of murder, rape and
robbery; had it not been a presentment of the gen-
eral incompetency of your government as shown by
the outcome of the war with Russia.

Permit me to remind Your Excellency that anar-
chies in government or in any part of the people are
not permitted in this world. To the Maker of this
universe they are eternally abhorrent ; and from the
beginning have been fobidden to be. They go their
course, applauded — usually by self — for what
lengths of time none can know; for a long term
sometimes, but always for a fixed term ; and at last
their day comes.

Sense of Humanity Needed

It were inexpressibly regrettable, your Excel-
lency, for your government to explode in something
worse than in the Nie Pozwalam in which your forty
different diets of old exploded. May Heaven fore-
fend such a fate. The world wishes the Poland of
to-day well.

But Poland will not, cannot, prosper until there
shall be a radical conversion of your governors, un-
til at worst a primitive sense of humanity toward
3,000,000 Poles comes to the upper crust of your
society.

Meanwhile political economists will be consider-
ing how a nation — a new nation at that — can thrive
when 3,000,000 of its commercially and financially
most competent citizens are subject to momentary
murder and robbery; meanwhile Jewish financiers
the world over will think thrice ere they subscribe
to another Polish loan.

Be assured. Your Excellency, of my profound re-
spect, highest esteem and most distinguished con-
sideration. BOERSIANER.

— New York American (IVilliam Randolph
Hearst), August 13, 1920.

52

FOR POGROMS THAT NEVER HAPPENED

The Poles meanwhile are maligned with the usual
mercilessness of those professional mercy-mongers
who are so horrified by the cruelties of life that
they add as many more as they can.

The charge of imperialism has served at least to
give us a brief respite from the anti-Polish propa-
ganda of certain Jews who accused Poland of
butchering Jews by the thousand.

Has everybody forgotten the procession in New
York and in other cities where mdurning was worn
and dirges were sung for the slaughtered multitudes
of the Polish pogroms? Has any one apologized
to Poland for accusing her of rivaling Turkey, in
Armenia? I have not seen the apologies, though
many eminent Americans exploded a lot of lofty
eloquence against Poland on behalf of civilization
and in protest against the thousands of Jewish
slain.

If there had been any truth in the charge the elo-
quence would have been honorable. But an apol-
ogy would be still more honorable now that the
commissions have reported that the thousands of
victims are reduced to 285. Ambassador Hugh Gib-
son branded the charges as lies, and Ambassador
Morgenthau, himself a Jew, who visited Poland and
investigated, gave the quietus to the venomous
campaign of slander. The respectable Jewish ma-
jority incurs much undeserved hatred because of the
vicious activity of a few.

— From Imperialisin in Reborn Poland, by
Rupert Hughes, the Author, in New York
Times Book Review and Magazine, July
18, 1920.

THE INCIDENT AT KIEF

"At the final entrainment in the city the Jewish
people, moved by some extraordinary influence,
started shooting from the windows at the Poles.
Only by the issuance of strict orders were the men
(Polish soldiers) held back from retaliating. It
was considered best to ignore the sniping and carry
on. Thanks to the poor marksmanship of the Reds
and of their aids within the city the casualties were
relatively few. In the refugee train, crowded par-
ticularly with women and children, the excitement
was tei-rible as the train passed under gunfire.
Twice during the night the priests gave the last
rites of the Church to the people crowded into the
box cars on the several trains."

— From the New York Times, July 2, 1920,
Special Correspondence from Washington,
D. C; being the account of Colonel Gaskill,
formerly of the United States Army, and
Jay P. Moffat, Secretary of the American
Legation of Warsaw. The Correspondent
said, "The account, received today, although
not official, is regarded as reliable informa-
tion."

TRAGIC SITUATION OF THE JEWS
By MAJOR SANFORD GRIFFITH

The present plight of the Jews in Poland is not
the result of any malicious project of extermina-
tion, but the direct consequence of the economic
chaos created by the war. The force and vigor of
the Polish Christian people comes from the land.
The future of the nation is assured, whatever the
outcome of the present struggle, because 70 per
cent, of them are on the farms. But the Polish
Jews have lived and tlirived by industry and trade,
on the manipulation of a delicate machinery which
has been completely junked during the wrar. Fac-
tories are paralyzed and have been during the
greater part of the war. For a time trade continued
in a more or less crippled way, and many Jews
adapted themselves to the abnormal conditions and
continued to make money. But the masses, less
enterprising, have only suffered from closed mar-
kets, hindered transportation and other difficulties.
Now most of this irregular trade has ceased. Goods
are not.to be had. The Poles have become a poor
people who cannot buy even where the goods exist.

The low social state of the Polish Jews makes
them particularly helpless to pull themselves out
of their present plight. Orthodoxy here has taken
its worst forms. A large part of the Jews in Po-
land know only the organization of their cult, and
this has too often been a narrow, ritualistic strait-
jacket, which has kept the Jews apart from the
Polish population about them. . . .

The hatred existing between the Polish Jews and
the Christians, whatever form it may take, is at
bottom largely economic. It is none the less accen-
tuated by the low culture of the Polish Jews them-
selves. This is most conspicuous in the gulf which
separates them from the large number of so-called
assimilated Jews, those who have dropped their old
Jewish traditions and taken up Polish ones. Many
of these assimilated Jews hold positions of wealth
and influence. But they are so conscious of the
difference between themselves and their old kins-
men, and so eager to seem a part of the new set,
that they have not responded as generously as the
American Jews to the support of their poor kins-
men here.

Not only does the economic disorder due to the
war make the situation of the Polish Jews a criti-
cal one, but the evolution of the economic system
in Poland tends to make living impossible for an
increasing number of them. For centuries business
remained exclusively in the hands of the Jews. But
in the last generation an increasing number of Poles
have left the land and have taken an active part in
commerce and industry. The competition here has
become increasingly acute, and, unlike other coun-
tries, the Jew in Poland has not the training suffi-
cient to hold his ground.

The Jews have been the middlemen of Poland.
They were the venders and the money-lenders to
the farms. But now the growth of banks and co-
operatives has deprived them of much of this busi-
ness as well. . . .

— From the Neiv York Globe, September I, 1920.

53

TO THE JEWISH CITIZENS

Are We Really So Wicked? Are We So
Bloodthirsty?

Recent developments among our citizens are
pointing to a reopening of the old sores, the old
squabbles, which in cases have ended u'p in blows,
are daily occurrences. The inevitable result will be
a further widening of the gap between the Poles
and the Jews, which in time- is bound to have an
evil bearing upon the status of Poland in the rank
of the world nations.

Where lies the fault?

You will all admit that right along your attitude
towards the Poles in America has been antagonis-
tic ; we were an inferior race, as most of your young-
er generation has termed us: "Damn Polacks."

Your prominent men, your press has been filled
with vituperation against Poland. You* forget
that a Pole loves Poland just as intensely as
a Jew loves the Jewish race. You forget that
our soldiers are fighting a mighty battle, with a
mighty military machine, equipped with scythes,
pitch-forks and pocket-knives, without clothing,
starved. You must know that last winter the Pol-
ish soldier marched bare-footed, with not even a
sock to protect his feet, and you know that he is
facing a winter that will be worse in all conditions.
Do you realize that an interview like that published
by the "New York American" last week with Judge
Levy, creates a sentiment against Poland in the
very country that can help her most in her distress,
and do you wonder that every native born Pole,
and even those of Polish extraction, are warmed to
a fever heat by such irresponsible, wanton state-
ments.

Poland has suffered too much. Her land is sat-
urated with the red blood of her sons, whp have
perished during her 100 years of slavery. Freedom
was too dearly bought to be lost now, through the
machinations of any certain group or clique of
people.

I, myself, have always believed that the Jewish
problem must be solved, and that it cannot be
solved by extermination or emigration.

The problem must be met squarely by the Polish
Government. Some kind of agreement must be
reached. Poland cannot exist with a large antago-
nistic population within her borders. Our Polish
Government has already given important positions
to Jews in her Government. She has only a few
days since appointed Prof Simon S. Askenazy her
second representative to the League of Nations.
Our embassy and consulates have Jews occupying
important posts, so has our Diet. The Jews in Lem-
berg recently contributed 300,000 marks and voted
to give Poland military aid and sustain her in her
struggle against Bolshevism.

Why don't your news agencies broadcast facts
like that upon the world, and show that we Poles>
after all, are not so wicked?

Instead, they seem to take a fanatical pleasure in
disseminating news of imaginary pogroms and
other anti-Polish propaganda. They do not con-
sider that Poland is a country racked with over
six years of horrible war. They do not consider
that all kinds of people make up a nation. They
do not mention that what they spread to all news-
papers on earth as a "pogrom" might be nothing
but a drunken brawl, a small altercation that ended
in blows. At this date European dispatches pub-
lish stories of skirmishes between Poles, Germans,
Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc. Yet
none of these nations has raised the cry: "pogrom."

Bloodshed, licentiousness, robbery is a natural
outcome of war. Our American history will tell
us of robber bands after the Revolution ; "guerillas"
after the Civil War. Why condemn a nation for
the acts of a few?

Are we really murderers? Do we really enjoy
orgies of blood? Do we really kill innocent Jews
and their children? Look, around. Maybe your
next door neighbor is a Pole. Maybe you
have a few in your employ. Do they look like
murderers, baby-killers ; or are they just plain, hard
working American citizens like yourself?

One thing more — I myself was born in America,
in Newark — I have come in contact with Poles from
Galicia, Posen, Lemberg, Plock and Warsaw. Al-
ways the sentiment has been the same. They all
complained of the Jews. There was no concrete
reason that^could not be ironed out. I often won-
dered. So many people, from so many different
sections,* yet all with the same story. Why? Now
the Jews are exceptionally good business people.
They study trade conditions. When business is
poor they want to know why, and then set out to
get rid of that reason. Wouldn't it be a good idea
to find a solution for this mighty problem that con-
cerns the future of a nation?

It cannot be solved by wild rantings of a Judge
Levy. That is only pouring oil upon the fire.

It cannot be solved by breaking windows and at-
tacking Poles indiscriminately with shouts of
"Damn Polacks."

It cannot be solved by the display of Jewish flags
on a day like last Sunday, "Polish Day," with no
other purpose than to be spiteful.

And it surely cannot be solved by propaganda,
that is aimed at the very foundations of Poland,
that would deprive Poland of her LIBERTY, and
once again make her a slave.

Frank Kempczynski, Editor.

— Published in the "Kronika," Polish language
newspaper of Nenjark, New Jersey, August
18, 1920.

54

The Truth?

London — (J. C. B.) — The Warsaw correspondent
writes that the Jews of that city celebrated July
the Fourth by decorating their homes, closing their
schools and hplding a special service in their syna-*
gogues. The Polish authorities resented the jubila-
tions in honor of America's independence and pro-
hibited all public manifestations*

— From The Sentinel, "The American Jewish
Weekly," Chicago, July 23, 1920.

There are some persons who affect to believe
that there can be no such thing as gratitude be-
tween nations. It would have been a wholesome
experience for these people if they could have wit-
nessed as I did this year's celebration of the Fourth
of July in Warsaw. The Bolsheviki were advanc-
ing on the city. Their approach was heralded by
the reports of the cruelties and the devastation that
were marking their path. Warsaw was in a state
of the greatest anxiety.

The Poles, however, would let nothing interfere
with the fitting celebration of America's birthday.
In the churches of the city the people gathered to
hear sermons of gratitude to the American people
for what they have done for Poland. Afterwards
the American colony assembled in the great square
before the City Hall where a small copy of our
statue of liberty had been erected. Ten thousand
children, every one fed by the Hoover organization
and clothed by the American Red Cross, marched
through the square cheering America, their bene-
factor. In the evening there was a great reception
at which fervid speeches were made to us Ameri^
cans. But it is the children w^e shall always remem-
ber, and we know that whatever happens America
has a friend in Europe for at least one .generation.

By William C. Boyden,
American Commissioner of the League of Red Cross
Societies.

* The italics are the Editor's.

55

The Situation

The importance of the foregoing reports would
appear more vividly if at the same time was pub-
lished the news which for nearly two years has be'en
spread over the whole world concerning the terrible
Polish "pogroms" and "atrocities," claiming that
thousands upon thousands of peaceful citizens were
murdered through race and religious hatred. Such
a confrontation would show clearly of what Poland
is accused, and what basis she was discredited and
condemned in the opinion of the world, and what
a small part of these accusations proved to be true.
It would also show that although 90 per cent of
the accusations were proved false, nobody with-
drew them, and their authors took from the reports
of the American and English Missions only what
could be used against Poland. The rest they passed
over in silence. To confront however the result of
the investigations of these Missions with all these
accusations, instead of a small book several volumes
would be necessary.

From the very first moment, when at the begin-
ning of November, 1918, Poland regained her in-
dependence, day after day and month after month,
news of dreadful Jewish pogroms were spread over
the whole world. What is more, no other news
came from Poland, as if the Poles, after their libera-
tion from 150 years of captivity, had nothing better
to do than to murder Jews.

This news found the more credit as nobody con-
tradicted it. And nobody could contradict it. The
Polish Government could not, because there was
no Polish Government. When, in November, 1918,
the German and Austrian authorities ceased to
function in Poland (the Russian authorities had
long since fled), nobody remained to govern, and
Poland, devastated by four years of war, found her-
self without government, without administration,
without tribunals, without police and without an
army. And when the Polish Government arose it
still could not deny the pogroms, for it first had to
create an administration that would restore order
and investigate all excesses. All this was accom-
plished in an astonishingly short period, but even
then the government could not occupy itself with
a press campaign, firstly because it learned of these
accusations very late in the day (Poland was virtu-
ally cut off from the world), secondly, because in
addition to creating the whole machinery of State,
it had to create an army in order to repulse invasion
on four fronts.

And so the news of dreadful "pogroms" penetrated
everywhere, spread systematically via Berlin and
Vienna, and by special bureaux in Stockholm and
Copenhagen, which from day to day furnished news
to Zionist organizations possessing sufficient means
and influence to give it a world-wide publication.
And the news was frightful. It told of thousands

of Jews not only beaten and robbed, but murdered
and burned alive. As these facts were confirmed
by "eye-witnesses" it is no wonder they aroused
general indignation. And when Mr. Israel Cohen,
the Secretary of the London Zionist Organization,
after investigating the matter on the spot published
in English papers and at a meeting in Queen's Hall
in London that such atrocities had taken place in
Poland in 130 towns, indignation meetings and
funereal processions began all over the world.

At this point the Polish Government began to
issue denials of these crimes, which called forth
greater indignation : "It is not enough that they
murder innocent Jews, in addition they lie." For
of necessity the denials were unaccompanied by
proofs. When an "eye-witness" declared that he
counted 2,300 Jewish corpses, how prove that it
was untrue and that these corpses are living. Ex-
cited public opinion demanded negative proof from
Poland, but did not demand proofs from her ac-
cusers. The news of "pogroms" were so established
all over the world that the denials of the numerous
foreign correspondents who began to visit Poland
found no faith. What is more, when after December
1918 the various missions of the Allies began to
arrive in Poland, and the members of these mis-
sions also began to deny the pogroms, even their
testimony was regarded with suspicion. Jewish
pogroms in Poland had become a dogma so firmly
established that denials were useless.

When therefore Mr. Paderewski, at that time
Polish Premier, requested the Governments of the
Allies to send a special mission to Poland to find
out the truth, an unheard of thing happened ; the
American as well as the English Government came
to the conviction that in order that the reports
should find credit a Jew must stand at the head of
the mission. Christian testimony did not appear to
be sufficient. This aroused among the Poles an
astonishment as great as would have been felt by
Polish Jews, if at the head of an American mission
had been placed, for instance. Congressman Kleczka,
an equally honored and respected American citizen,
but suspected of partiality because of his Polish
descent. And as humour never loses its rights even
in the most dramatic moments, it was a standing
joke in the Polish Press that at the head of the mission
on the question of the lynching of negroes in Amer- '
ica should be a colored gentleman from Haiti and
a full blooded delegate from Central Africa.

But even thus, with Jews at its head, the task
of this mission was not easy, for the question of
pogroms in Poland had taken on such a character
that even the testimony of Jews was accepted only
when it was against Poland. A Polish Jew in
Stockholm was brutally convinced of this when he
was beaten and ejected from an indignation meeting
for daring to question the truth of the accusations ;

56

Mr. L. Pilichowski, President of the Union of Polish
Jews in England, at the meeting in Queen's Hall
(April 9th, 19) was greeted with insulting cries and
shouted down when he expressed his conviction that
the present Polish Government has every desire to
establish tolerable relations with the Jews; Mr.
Diamand, an eminent Jewish member of the Polish
Parliament — and one of the leaders of the Socialist
Party, was accused of treason by a Zionist paper
for expressing a similar opinion.

In this difficult situation, the two chiefs of the
missions for investigating pogroms in Poland chose
different ways, Mr. Morgenthau, an American citi-
zen of the Jewish faith, did not renounce his nat-
ural sympathy with his cobelievers, but at the same
time strove to be an impartial judge, not the rep-
resentative of one side only. The British Jew,
Sir Stuart Samuel, did not take so much trouble,
and the manner in which his investigations were
carried out left in Poland the impression of an at-
torney gathering materials for an act of accusation,
rather than of a judge.

The task was in any case so difficult, and the
whole atmosphere so permeated with the bitterness
of accusations and the poison of hate, that the mem-
bers of both missions, the American as well as the
English, were unable, in spite of their sincere desire,
to make a common report. Mr. Morgenthau wrote
a separate report, and General Jadwin and Mr.
H. H. Johnson, two Christian members of his mis-
sion, wrote also a separate report while Sir Stuart
Samuel's report had to be sandwiched between a
letter by Sir H. Rumbold, the British Minister in
Poland, and the report of Mr. P. Wright — both
constituting a severe criticism of the report of Sir
Stuart Samuel.

In spite of their diversity however, these reports
possess great documentary value, for they represent
one question from different standpoints. They
would have to be recognized as the final revelation
of the whole truth if they were completed by the
remarks of a man occupying the same position to-
wards the Polish nation as Sir Samuel occupied
towards the Jews. In such a case the matter could
have been considered by all sides as satisfactorily
cleared up.

But just as they are, these reports give a pretty
complete picture of the Jewish problem in Poland,
considered as a whole.

In his letter of June 30th, 1919, Secretary Lansing
defined the work of the mission as : "investigation
of the various massacres, pogroms, and other ex-
. cesses alleged to have taken place, the economic
boycott, and other methods of discrimination
against the Jewish race," afterwards adding that
"the establishment of the truth in regard to those
matters. . . .is merely for the purpose of seeking to
discover the reason lying behind such excesses and
discriminations with a view to finding a possible
remedy."

These three points : 1st, the truth about the
pogroms etc., 2nd the reason lying behind such ex-
cesses, and 3rd the possible remedy, are presented

in a different manner not only by the two missions,
but also by the members of each mission.

/ — Pogroms, Atrocities, Excesses

Although the reports of the members of the two
missions often differ in the description of anti-
Jewish incidents in Poland, there is not much dif-
ference in the final result of their investigations.
To a certain degree Sir Stuart Samuel is an ex-
ception, recognising as "proved to my satisfaction"
details not quoted at all as proved by any of the other
members of the two missions.

The final result of the investigations of both mis-
sions is that during the first five critical months
there were about 280 killed in the anti-Jewish ex-
cesses (Morgenthau) ; that the number of killed
"has not exceeded 300" (Jadwin- Johnson) ; that the
number of killed was at least 348 (Sir S. Samuel) ;
and "not more than 200 or 300 unjustly- killed"
(Wriglit). At the same time Sir H. Rumbold
divides these excesses into two categories : those
"which were perpetrated in Poland proper in the
course of which 18 Jews lost their lives ;" the others
being those which occurred in the war zone during
the campaign.

It must be remembered that newspaper reports
of pogroms which aroused such world-wide indigna-
tion, mentioned thousands of Jews killed in each of
the 130 Polish towns said to have been the sceiie of
these "atrocities."

The disturbances in Poland proper happened
during the first moments of her independence, when
there was neither government, police nor army,
and the starving populatioii was free to attack
stores where they believed provisions to be hidden.
They did not seek Jews, but food. In any country
in the world such excesses might have taken on
greater proportions if the police ceased to act at
the very moment when the hungry population, un-
able to buy food anywhere, seized all means of get-
ting it. At to the incidents in the war zone, it must
be remembered that reports confirm in part that
the Jews fought on the side of the enemies of Poland
at the most critical moment, and in part that they
were suspected of this with more or less justice. If
it is recalled that after driving the Russians from
Galicia the German and Austrian armies hung in
Galicia 30 thousand people suspected of sympathy
with the enemy it will be easy»to understand the
words of Mr. Wright, who, in speaking of the num-
ber of killed in these conditions, said: "One would
be too many, but taking these casualities as a stand-
ard with which to measure the excesses committed
against them (the Jews), I am more astonished at
their smallness than their greatness."

As to the responsibility for these excesses, even
Sir Stuart Samuel said that (with the exception of
the incidents in Lvov, Lida and Wilna) "the mil-
itary authorities endeavoured to restrict the action
of the soldiers as much as possible," and that "speak-
ing generally, as the civil authority has been able
to make its power effective, so the position in the

57

rear of the troops has become more and more satis-
factory."

Other merobers of the two missions are more
decided. Mr. Morgenthau says : "It would be. . . .un-
fair to condemn the Polish nation as a whole for
the violence committed by uncontrolled troops or
local mobs." General Jadwin and Mr. H. H. John-
son state that "none of these excesses were in-
stigated or approved by any responsible govern-
mental authority, civil or military, "that every-
where the authorities ordered investigations and
repression, that even in the sad incidents in Pinsk
"no share can be attributed to any military ofiEcial
higher up, to any of the Polish civil ofificials, or to
the few Poles resident in that district of White
Russia." Mr. P. Wright says that the excesses took
place at a period when "there was not much law
for anyone," and adds that these events are small
and trivial in comparison with the horrors of
Bolshevism, the atrocities of the Ukrainian rising,
and the brutalities of the struggle between the
Germans and the Russians. In the opinion of Sir
H. Rumbold "in view of the weakness of the central
administration, and the original want of discipline
in the Polish army, it would appear that the authori-
ties could not be held responsible for the excesses" ;
that the condition of the Jews in Poland "bad as it
may have been or may still be, has been far better
than in most of the surrounding countries." And
Sir H. Rumhold concludes: "It is giving the Jews
very little real assistance to single out, as is some-
times done, for reprobation and protest, the country
where they have perhaps suffered least."

// — Causes of the Anti- Jewish Movement in Poland

The reports of the ttvo missions cite many causes
which produced dislike of the Jews in Poland. No
report, however, attributes it to religious prejudice,
nor considers the excesses as religious persecution
and a lack of religious tolerance. This is a point to
be emphasized.

The report of Sir Stuart Samuel differs from all
the others in that he does not see any other causes
for this dislike except perhaps the malice of Poles
revenging themselves for the election of Mr.
Jagiello as deputy for Warsaw. It is difficult to
consider as a real cause the phenomenal discovery
of Sir Stuart that the Jews represent the only mid-
dle-class in Poland, which for the rest has only an
aristocracy and a peasantry (?). He mentions also
as a cause of unjust reproaches the use of the Ger-
man language and the close relations with the Ger-
mans during the war, as well as the suspected taint
of Bolshevism, at the same time remarking: "al-
though it should not be matter of surprise if some
of the younger generation of educated Jews, finding
all avenues of advancement and fair play barred,
should be found ready to listen to proposals for
freedom and equality of opportunity." It is thus
Sir Stuart defines Bolshevism, differing fundamen-
tally in this respect from Mr. P. Wright, who
is of the opinion that "the Bolshevik administration
was a parody of the Tsarist administration, which
itself was little better than a parody," and confirms

the large part taken by the Jews in this administra-
tion.

Mr. Morgenthau looks deeper, and finds political
as well as economic causes, showing circumstances
which inclined the Polish soldier to look upon the
Jews as aliens, and hostile to Polish nationality, show-
ing the chaotic state of affairs in Poland, the social
unrest after the war which stimulated patriotic out-
bursts, sentiments incompatible with the nationaHst
declarations of some Jewish organizations, their de-
mands for autonomy and their attitude during the
Conference in Paris. General Jadwin and Mr. John-
son add to this the abnormal concentration of Jews
in Poland, their readiness to go with the winning side,
alleged speculations in foodstuffs, denunciations to the
Germans, their conduct toward the enemies of Poland,
and the danger of anti-Polish propaganda which has
its source in Germany.

Mr. P. Wright gives many reasons for the strained
relations existing between the Poles and the Jews.
Some are of an economic nature. The Jews in Poland
are small middlemen, hardly ever producers, capitalists
of a few shillings for whom there is every year less
and less room. They are unfit for the modern eco-
nomic world, and are driven out by modem methods.
"Polish workmen will not work with people whose
personal habits are so unclean." "They are also driven
into all sorts of illicit and fraudulent practices, and I
think the Poles are right when they complain that
too large a proportion of such offenses are Jewish."
Mr. Wright then gives political reasons. The Litwaki
sent by Russia into Poland, openly professed them-
selves partisans of conquering Russia, organized the
Polish Jews and the Jewish Press, which fought
against Polish autonomy. During the war it was
with Jews that the Germans set up their organization
to squeeze and drain Poland; they were their instru-
ment. They fought with the Bolsheviki, often joining
them because of the opportunity of doing business,
especially speculation in food. Germanized, Russified,
with Bolshevist connections, they appeared to the Poles
as representatives of their oppressors. "It had seemed
certain that one of the two, the German or the Russian
Empire, must win, and that the Jews who had their
money on both were safe; but the despised Poland
came in first. Even now the Jews can hardly believe
in its resurrection, and one of them told me it still
seems to him a dream."

Mr. Wright made a thorough study of the social con-
ditions of Polish Jews, and his unexpected conclusions
are that eastern Jews with their own language, dress,
calendar, with their narrow ritualism based on literally
taken texts of books which rule their whole life, have
a civilization which resembles the civilization of Islam,
not only far removed from European civilization, but
a civilization of the fifth century before Christ. The
eastern Jews are "not civilized in our sense of the
word, and it is impossible for the Poles to amalgamate
with them, and difficult to mix with them or even to
frame common laws with them." "The semi-assimila-
tion of the larger masses of the eastern Jews is the
very cause of the evil." It stimulates their nationalism.
They will not be governed by men who are not of
their race, language and religion. "They protest they

58

are not Poles ; they are only Jews, but Polish subjects."
The result is the demand for a national autonomy:
all the Jews in Poland should figure on a separate
register, they should have a representative body with
extensive powers, separate budget and organization,
their deputies to the Polish Parliament elected by Jews
only, the right to use Yiddish in legal proceedings,
schools, etc. This 14 per cent, of the population of
Poland, with its antiquated Asiatic civilization, should
"be organized for all time as a separate national body,
safe from fhe assimilating influence of the remaining
86 per cent, of the population — all this is "the very
cause of the evil."

/// — Possible Remedies

In speaking of possible remedies Mr. Morgenthau is
sparing of words, but touches on many fundamental
ideas. "To formulate a solution of the Jewish problem
will necessitate a careful and broad study,, not only
of the economic condition of the Jews, but also of the
exact requirements of Poland. These requirements
•will not be definitely known prior to the fixation of
Pplish boundaries, and the final regulation of Polish
relations with Russia, with which the largest share
of trade was previously conducted. It is recommended
that the League of Nations, or the larger nations in-
terested in this problem, send to Poland a commission
consisting of recognized industrial, educational, agri-
cultural, economic and vocational experts, which
should remain there as long as necessary to examine
the problem at its source." On another page he says :
"When the boundaries of Poland are once fixed, and
the internal organization of the country is perfected,
" the Polish Government will be increasingly able to
protect all classes of Polish citizenry." In the opinion
of Mr. Morgenthau "The minority must be encouraged
to participate with their whole strength and influence
in making Poland the great unified country that is
required in Central Europe to combat the tremendous
dangers that confront it. Poland must promptly de-
velop its full strength, and by its conduct first merit
and then receive the unstinted moral, financial and
economic support of all the world which will ensure
the future success of the Republic." He rrJtntions the
new Polish Constitution now in the making, the gen-
erous scope of which "has already been indicated by
the special treaty with the Allied and Associated
Powers, in which Poland has affirmed its fidelity to
the principles of liberty and justice and the rights
of minorities, and we may be certain that Poland will
be faithful to its pledge, which is so conspicuously in
harmony with the nation's best traditions." And Mr.
Morgenthau concludes: "There must be but one class
of citizens in Poland, all members of which enjoy
equal rights and render equal duties."

General Jadwin and Mr. Johnson subscribe to the
conclusions of Mr. Morgenthau, insisting on the neces-
sity of "one and only one class of citizens," and ad-
vising Poland and Jews to "keep in mind American ex-
perience in public school development, and carefully
to weigh the question whether the permanency of the
separate school plan will be advisable." They beUeve
that "once the military threat against Poland is re-

moved and the territorial uncertainty of the Republic
is ended, the nation will be able to concentrate its
energies on internal problems and, by the course of
natural development, create a governmental system in-
suring equality, protection and prosperity to all ele-
ments of its population. The mission thoroughly be-
lieves that Poland has the raw materials of citizenship
quite equal to this accomplishment."

General Jadwin and Mr. Johnson conclude by en-
umerating "the duties of the outside world toward
Poland" concerning the establishment of the frontiers,
protection against external interference, material aid
in the nature of food, clothing and raw materials,
study of over-population or under-industrialization,
campaign by League of Nations of universal education
in ideals of democracy and the disinterested counsel
of the allied democracies based on their experience.

Mr. P. Wright, like all the other members of the
two missions, sees the principal remedy in the opening
up of Russia to the Jews : "If Russia is opened to the
Jews, the Polish Jewish question may solve itself.
The Jews who were pumped into Poland by the Tsarist
Government will stream back there, and now sweep
along with them very many of the Polish Jews." Ben
sides this, as a logical consequence of his opinion con-
cerning the low social level of the eastern Jews and
their unfitness for modern conditions, Mr. Wright, in
deep sympathy with the "immense mass of squalid
and helpless poverty," sees the necessity of educating
the eastern Jewish masses, of preaching to them "the
gospel of the toothbrush," of cleanliness and of teach-
ing them modern methods of earning a livelihood.
He insists that western Jews may in this respect help
their unfortunate eastern brethren; who "look with
suspicion on anything that does not come from their
co-religionists and Rabbis."

Sir S. Samuel, always original, differs widely from
the other members of the missions. Besides the open-
ing of Russia, facilities of emigration, introduction
of new industries, equality of rights, and remedies
qualified as unsuitable by Sir H. Rumbold, Sir Stuart
sees only one other efficient remedy — the police. The
Polish Government must be urged to carry out the
clauses of the Minority Treaty in a spirit of sympathy
with the Jews (this urging for sympathy is curious),
boycotts must be decreed illegal and all publications
advocating boycotts suspended. Sir Stuart overrates
the power" of the police and the efficiency of press
gagging methods. He does not remember that the
English authorities, at that periol all-powerful in Ire-
land, were unable to protect from such proceedings a
certain Captain Boycott, who was compelled to leave
Ireland, such proceedings being thereafter known as
"boycotting." Sir Stuart Samuel appears to be un-
aware that a remedy, to be efficient, must influence the
feelings of the population, and the sole prohibition
of giving expression to these feelings would be no
remedy at all ; on the contrary, it would stimulate ill-
feeling against the Jews if the Polish Government
were urged to suppress, for the benefit of the Jews,
publications expressing the real sentiment of the Polish
people. Such a prohibition would be worse than use-
less—the sentiment itself should be changed.

It is easy to draw one logical deduction from Sir

59

Stuart's suggestion. If political boycott should be
suppressed, it could not be limited to anti-Jewish boy-
cott. How about the anti-Polish boycott? Sir Stuart
would, of course, find absurd a demand to suppress the
boycott of the Polish State and the Polish nation, ad-
vocated with such unanimity and persistence all over
the world. No Pole has ever expressed such an ex-
travagant demand.

Conclusion
There are two circumstances which give a tragic
stamp to the relations between the Poles and the Jews.
Firstly, this dispute is not a historical necessity, it is
not a natural consequence of centuries-old relations,
but of an accidental outside cause, which fell on Poland
in spite of the tendencies and efforts of her inhabi-
tants. A second tragic circumstance is that this con-
flict began with such a lurid outburst at the very mo-
ment when Poland had regained her independence,
and again took up the thread of her history as a State,
a history whose annals record through centuries tra-
ditions of tolerance and liberty.

Before her dismemberment, when Poland was an
independent State, the relations between Poles and
Jews were satisfactory. Poland earned the title of
"Paradisus Judaeorum," and although Jews flocked to
Poland from other countries where they suffered per-
secution, there was every prospect of their assimila-
tion as equal citizens. Religious tolerance was such
that there were no religious dissensions, and national
dissensions did not exist. In view of the traditional
exclusiveness of the Jewish community the process of
assimilation proceeded slowly, but it proceeded, and
was not interrupted even by the Partitions. If the
literature of a nation reflects its character, Polish liter-
ature is perhaps the only literature representing Jews
as national patriots, headed by Jankiel in the national
epics by Mickiewicz, Poland's greatest poet. This pro-
cess reached its zenith in 1862, when A. 'Wielopolski
was at the head of the administration of Congress
Poland, and he, a Pole, proclaimed the emancipation
and equal rights of the Jews, and this was immediately
put in practice by Poles, not only poHtically, but so-
cially. The consequence of this was that Jews took
part in the Polish insurrection. But the insurrection
was suppressed, the remainder of Poland's autonomy
withdrawn and the rights of the Jews restricted. This
was the act of Russia. And what is more, Russia,
wishing to rid herself of Jews, began to send them to
Poland. Poland could absorb socially her own Jews,
bound to her by the traditions of centuries. She could
not assimilate this foreign surplus. In the sixteenth
century, the period of Poland's greatest prosperity,
three and one-half per cent. .of the population were
Jews. At present the Jews represent 14 per cent, of
the population. In addition, these arrivals brought
with them, not only a stubborn separatism, but hatred
of Poland. The result was the appearance in Poland
of anti-Semitism — a guest hitherto unknown. Anti-
Jewish sentiments increased when the inimical attitude
of the "Litvak" and their adherents was so glaringly
revealed during the Great X'N'ar. It increased still
more when the resuscitation of independent Poland
was greeted by an organized, universal choir of hostile
voices, discrediting the reborn nation.

This outburst of hatred was not justified by the so-
called "pogroms," reduced to the real proportions, of
which there were fewer victims than from the auto-
mobile casualties in New York during the same period.
On the other hand thes? hostile voices from abroad
aroused great irritation in Poland, from which suffered
the poor masses of Jews in daily contact with Poles,.
with whom they have to live.

The members of the two missions propose different
remedies for this state of affairs. Sofne of them' —
such as the establishment of Polish frontiers, peace,
the opening of emigration to Russia, aid in economic
development, etc. — find unanimous approval.

There is also general unanimity as to the necessity
of equal rights for Jews, to which also all Poles agree.
In this respect, nevertheless, there are certain differ-
ences of opinion of which adherents of equal rights,
are not always conscious. Equal rights, although con-
firmed in Articles of the Constitution and guaranteed
by treaties, cannot really become part of the State
organism until mutual hostility is removed. Mr. Mor-
genthau concludes his report with the words : "There
must be but one class of citizens in Poland, all mem-
bers of which enjoy equal rights and render equal
duties." Even anti- Jewish Polish papers agree to this,
but add : "Let the Jews do their duty, and then we will
consider them as having equal rights" ; the Jews say :
"When we feel we have equal rights we will fulfill
our duties." Are we to wait and see who begins first ?
No, this hostility must be removed, and relations
brought about in which such a dilemma would be im-
possible.

This cannot, however, be attained by the compulsory
methods so dear to Sir Stuart Samuel. The Govern-
ment, the Polish people, declare themselves ready to
co-operate in order to arrive at harmony and concord.
Let us suppose, however, that this is not the case. Po-
land is a democratic State, and 86 per cent, of her
population may impose their will on the Government.
Let us suppose against all probability, that the will of
the population is contrary to the clauses of the Minor-
ity Treaty. What then? If the League of Nations in
defense of Jews applied forcible measures to Poland,
it might obtain momentary results, but such action
would certainly not improve internal relations between
Jews and Poles ; it would be more likely to create an
atmosphere of bitterness favorable to the birth of real
pogroms. With the Minority Treaty or without it.
the sincerity of the concord is the essential point of
the problem, not a concord obtained by compulsion. A
sincere concord is barred by the demand of some Jews
for national autonomy. With such an autonomy there
would be not one, but two classes of citizens, con-
demned to eternal discord : one representing 86 per
cent, of Christian citizens with normal rights, the other
the 14 per cent of Jewish citizens enjoying special
privileges in addition to normal rights.

Moreover, the fixing of the peculiarities of the Jew-
ish minority would hinder the reconciliation and a har-
monious co-existence. This can be attained only by
removing the barriers dividing these two groups of
citizens, and not by rendering them permanent.

Mr. Wright, in his report, represents the intellectual
and cultural state of eastern Jews as such ; that "it is
impossible for the Poles to amalgamate with them, and

60

•difficult to mix with them, or even to frame common
laws for them." To render these differences perma-
nent would be to make impossible a friendly co-
existence.

In calling attention to this, General Jadwin and Mr.
Johnson point to American experience in public school
■development. This is based on Americanization, not
interfering in any way with the freedom and equality
of citizens, but moulding them into one vital organism.
Similarly Polonisation on the same broad and liberal
principles, must form the basis of Polish- Jewish rela-
tions if Poland also is to be a vital organism. To re-
move all that divides, and to promote all that ap-
proaches and conciliates — that is the principal task.
National, like human organisms, cannot suffer the
presence of foreign bodies; they must assimilate or
reject them. No League of Nations is strong enough
to grant "national autonomy" to a splinter driven into
a living body. The laws of physiology are stronger
than all htunan laws.

Poland was slowly and peacefully assimilating her
own Jews, when the Russian Government drove into
her midst the masses of Russian Jews, like a splinter
in a human body. When these foreign masses begin
their return journey to Russia, the wound will cease
to fester and will begin to heal. In the meantime, noth-
ing inflamed this wound so much as the universal anti-
Polish campaign on account of alleged Polish pogroms.
This campaign irritated the Poles and drove them into
the anti-Semitic camp ; this campaign encouraged that

part of the Jews inimical to Poland to look abroad for
support against their own country ; this campaign par-
al\zed on both sides the efforts of those who desired
reconciliation and concord.

Even were she not bound by the clauses of the
Minority Treaty, Poland is forced to settle this in-
ternal dispute, and heal the wound, which not only
enfeebles, but pains her. She must accomplish this
for her own good and for her own future. Western
Jews who have become an organic part of modern
society, and have great influence with their eastern
brothers, can in this respect render priceless service
to Poland, as well as to their Polish co-believers.

During his stay in Poland, after investigations on
the spot, Mr. Henry Morgenthau constantly en-
deavored to act as a conciliator, to encourage confi-
dence and concord, and to stimulate common efforts
toward the common good. The Polish-Je'wish prob-
lem will be the quicker and the better solved, the
more numerous the followers Mr. Morgenthau finds
among western Jews : people of good will, proclaim-
ing, not hatred and boycott, but love and concord.
Among the Polish nation are not lacking people
who have adopted this watchword.

Then, without difficulty and outside pressure, as a
normal result, will arise in Poland one class of citi-
zens, enjoying equal rights and rendering equal
duties, as desired not only by Mr. Morgenthau, the
eminent American citizen of Jewish faith, but also
by even the most catholic citizens of Poland.

The Polish Treaty

Convenant That Assures Liberty to Minorities in Poland — M. Clemenceau's Letter*

When the principal allied and associated powers signed
the German Peace Treaty on June 28, 1919, they also
signed another important pact to which the Polish del-
egates had just affixed their signatures. This treaty with
Poland was the first of a series of formal agreements
binding the new States of Eastern Europe to maintain the
institutions of modern political freedom under the aegis
of the League of Nations. Under the treaty Poland
agreed to protect minorities against discriinination, to
assume payment of such a share of the Russian debt as
should be assigned to her by the Interallied Co'mmission,
and to support important international postal, railway,
telegraphic, and other conventions incidental to the estab-
lishment of a national standing.

A statement issued at Paris on June 30 by Louis
Marshall, President of the Combined Jewish Committees
of the World, contained this comment on the treaty:

"Nothing thus far accomplished by the Peace Conference
exceeds in importance the Polish treaty signed at Ver-
sailles, which is the first of a series of conventions with
the new States of Eastern Europe to protect all racial,,
religious, and linguistic minorities. It is literally a charter
of liberty and the final- act of emancipation of those who
for .centuries have been bereft of elemental human rights.
Had nothing else been achieved in Paris than the pro-
nouncement that henceforth the rights of minorities are
to be respected and safeguarded, this act of righteousness
alone would have evidenced a memorable advance in the
onward march of civilization. It enshrines in the law of
nations the eternal principles of human liberty that consti-
tute the distinctive features of the American Constitution."

Explanatory Letter

In transmitting this document to the Polish Govern-
ment on lune 24, Premier Clemenceau, as President of

the Peace Conference, addressed a long letter to Premier
Paderewski at Warsaw setting forth the reasons for the
various conditions laid down in it. The letter began as
follows:

On behalf of the Supreme Council of the principal allied
and associated powers, I have the honor of communicating to
you herewith, in its final form, the text of the treaty which,
in accordance with Article 93 of the treaty of peace with Ger-
many, Poland will be .asked to sign on the occasion of the
confirmation of her recognition as an independent State and
of the transference to her of the territories included in the
former German Empire which are assigned to her by the
said treaty.

The principal provisions were communicated /to the Polish
delegation in Paris in May last and were subsequently com-
municated direct to the Polish Government through the
French Minister ^t Warsaw. The council since has had the
advantage of the suggestions which you were good enough
to convey in the memorandum of June 16, and as the result
of a study of the suggestion modifications have been intro-
duced in the text of the treaty. The council believes that
it will be found that, by the modification, the principal
points to which attention was drawn in your memorandum
have, in so far as they relate to specific provisions of the
treaty, been adequately covered.

In formally communicating to you the final decision of the
principal allied and associated powers in this matter I should
desire to take this opportunity of explaining in a more formal
manner than has hitherto been employed the conditions by
which the principal allied and associated powers have been
guided in dealing with the question.

•Reprinted from the New York Times Current History,
August 1919.

O-nlOlng' Principles

One — In the first place, I would point out that the treaty
does not constitute any fresh departure. It has for long
been the established procedure of the public law of Europe
that when a State is created, or even when large accessions
of territory are made to an established State, the joint and
formal recognition by the great powers should be accom-
panied by the requirement that such State should. In the
form of a binding international convention, undertake to
comply with certain principles of government. This prln-

61

ciple, for which there are numerous other precedents, re-
ceived the explicit sanction when, at the last great assembly
of Kuropean powers — the Congress of Berlin — the sovereignty
and Independence of Serbia, Montenegro, and Rumania were
recognized. It Is desirable to recall the words used on this
occasion by the British, French, Italian and German pleni-
potentiaries, as recorded in the protocol of June 28, 1878.

Premier Clemenceau here quoted from Lord Salisbury,
William Henry Waddington, French plenipotentiary at
the Berlin Congress; Prince Bismarck, Count de Launay.
Italian plenipotentiary, and Count Andrassy of Austria-
Hungary, who made declarations on the occasion in
question emphasizing the necessity of establishing the
principle of religious liberty. Premier Clemenceau then
resumed:

Two — The principal allied and associated powers are of
the opinion that they would be false to the responsibility
which rests upon them if on this occasion they departed
from what has become an. established tradition. In this
connection I must also recall to your consideration the fact
that It is through the endeavors and sacrifices of the powers
in whose name I am addressing you that the Polish Nation
owes the recovery of its independence. It is by their decision
that sovereignty is being re-established over the territories
in question; and that the inhabitants of these territories are
being Incorporated in the Polish Nation. It is on the support
which these powers will afford to the League of Nations that
the future Poland will, to a large extent, depend for the
secure possession of these territories.

There rests, therefore, upon these powers an obligation
which they cannot evade to secure in the most permanent
and solemn form guarantees for certain essential rights which
will afford to the inhabitants the necessary protection, what-
ever changes may take place in the internal constitution of
the Polish State.

It Is in accordance witU this obligation that clause 93 was
Inserted In the treaty of peace with Germany. This clause
relates only to Poland, but a similar clause applies
the same principles to Czechoslovakia, and other
clauses have been inserted in the treaty of peace with Austria,
and will be Inserted in those with Hungary and Bulgaria,
under which similar obligations will be undertaken by other
States which, under those treaties, receive large accessions
of territory.

The consideration of these facts would be sufficient to
show that by the requirement addressed to Poland at the
time when it is receiving in the most solemn manner the
joint recognition of the re-establlshment of its sovereignty
and Independence, and when large accessions of territory are
being assigned to it. no doubt is thrown upon the sincerity of
the desire of the Polish Government and the Polish Nation
to maintain the general principles of justice and liberty.
Any such doubt would be far from the Intention of the prin-
cipal allied and associated powers.

Three — It Is Indeed true that the new treaty differs in form
from earlier conventions dealing with similar matters. The
change of form Is a necessary consequence and an essential
part of the new system of international relations which Is
now being built up by the establishment of the League of
Nations. Under the older system the guarantee for the
execution of similar provisions was vested in the great
powers. Experience has shown that this was in practice
ineffective, and It was also open to the criticism that It might
give to the great powers, either Individually or In combina-
tion, a right to interfere in the internal constitution of the
States affected, which could be used for political purposes.

Under the new system the guarantee Is Intrusted to the
League of Nations. The clauses dealing with this guarantee
have been carefully drafted, so as to make it clear that
Poland will not be in any way under the tutelage of those
powers who are signatory to the treaty.

I should desire, moreover, to point out to you that provision
has been inserted in the treaty by which disputes arising out
of its provisions may be brought before the court of the
League of Nations. In this way differences which might
arise will be removed from the political sphere and placed In
the hand of a judicial court, and it is hoped that thereby
an impartial decision will be facilitated, whfle at the same
time any danger of political interferences by the powers in
the internal affairs of Poland will be avoided.

Four — The particular provisions to which Poland and the
other States will be asked to adhere differ to some extent
from those which were imposed on the new States at the
Congress of Berlin. But the obligations imposed upon new
States seeking recognition have at all times varied with the
particular circumstances.

New Provisions Necessary

Premier Clemenceau here pointed out that obligations
with regard to the Belgian provinces were undertaken
by the Netherlands in 1814, when those provinces were
annexed; that when the Kingdom of Greece was estab-
lished it was determined that its Government could be
both monarchical and constitutional, and that Greece,
when she annexed Thessaly, accepted a stipulation that
the lives, property, honor, religion, and customs of the
inhabitants should be respected and all their rights pro-
tected. He continued:

The situation with which the powers have now to deal is
new, and experience has shown that new provisions are
necessary. The territories now being transferred both to
Poland- and to other States Inevitably include a large popula-
tion speaking languages and belonging to races different
from that of the people with whom they will be Incorporated.
Unfortunately, the races have been estranged by long years
of bitter hostilities. It Is believed that these populations
will be more easily reconciled to their new position if they
know that from the very beginning they have assured protec-
tion and adequate guarantees against any danger of unjust
treatment or oppression. The very knowledge that these
guarantees exist will. It is hoped, materially help the recon-
ciliation which all desire, and will, indeed, do muoli to prevent
the necessity of its enforcement.

Five — To turn to the individual clauses of the present
treaty. Article 2 guarantees to all inhabitants those element-
ary rights which are, as a matter of fact, secured in every
civilized State. Clauses 3 to 6 are designed to insure that
all the genuine residents in the territories now transferred
to Polish sovereignty shall in fact be assured of the full
privileges of citizenship. Articles 7 and 8, which are in
accordance with precedent, provide against any discrimina-
tion against those Polish citizens who by their re-
ligion, tlieir language, or by their race differ from
the large mass of the Polish population. It is under-
stood that, far from raising any objection to the manner of
the articles, the Polish Government have already, of their
own accord, declared their firm intention of basing^ their
institutions on the cardinal principles enunciated therein.

Protection for Jews

The following articles are of a rather different nature,
in that they provide special privileges to certain group of
these minorities: * * *

Six — Clauses 10 and 12 deal specifically with the Jewish
citizens of Poland. The information at the disposal of the
principal allied and associated powers as to the existing
relations between the Jews and the other Polish citizens has
led them to the conclusion that, in view of the historical
development of the Jewish question and the great animosity
arousod by it, special protection is necessary for the Jews
of Poland. These clauses have been limited to the minimum
which seems necessary under the circumstances of the present
day, viz., the maintenance of Jewish schools and the protec-
tion of the Jews in the religious observance of their Sabbath.

It is believed that these stipulations will not create any
obstacle to the political unity of Poland. They do not
constitute any recognition of the Jews as a separate political
community within the Polish State. The educational provi-
sions contain nothing beyond what is in fact provided in the
educational institutions of many highly organized modern
States. There is nothing inconsistent with the sovereignty
of the State in recognizing and supporting schools in which
children sliall be brought up in the religious influences to-
which they are accustomed in their home. Ample safeguards
against any use of non-Polish language to encourage a spirit
of national separation have been provided in the express
acknowledgment that the provisions of this treaty do not
prevent the Polish State from making the Polish language
obligatory in all its schools and educational institutions.

In Part 7 of his letter Premier Clemenceau dealt with
the economic clauses of the treaty, such as freedom of
transit and Poland's adhesion to certain international
conventions, and pointed out that the powers had not
been actuated by any desire to secure special commercial
advantages for themselves. He added:

In conclusion, I desire to express to you on behalf of the
allied and associated powers the very sincere satisfaction
which they feel at the re-establlshment of Poland as an
important State. They cordially welcome the Polish Nation
on its re-entry into the family of nations. They recall the
great services which the ancient Kingdom of Poland ren-
dered to Europe both in public affairs and by its contribu-
tions to the progress of mankind, which is the common work
of all civilized nations. They believe that the voice of
Poland will add to the wisdom of their common deliberations
in the cause of peace and harmony, that Its influence will
be used to further the spirt of liberty and 'justice botti In
internal- and external affairs, and that thereby it will help in
the work of reconciliation between the nations which, "with
the conclusion of peace, will be the common task of humanity.

The text of the treaty itself, signed by Poland and the
allied and associated powers on June 28, 1919, is given in
full on the next four pages.

TEXT OF TREATY SIGHED BY VOXtAXTD

The TTnited States of America, the Britlsli Empire, Trance.
Italy, and Japad,' the principal allied and asBocIated powers,
on the one hand; and Poland, on the other hand:

WHEREAS, The allied and associated powers have, by the
success of their arms, restored to the Polish Nation the
independence of which it had been unjustly deprived; and
WHEREAS, By the proclamation of March 30, 1S17, the
Government of Russia assented to the re-establishment of an
independent Polish State; and,

WHEREAS, The Polish State, which now, in fact, exer-
cises sovereignty over those portions of the former Russian

62

Empire which are Inhabited by a majority of Poles, has al-
ready been recognized as a sovereign and important State by
the principal allied and associated powers; and

WHEREAS, Under the treaty of peace concluded with
Germany by the allied and associated .powers, a treaty of
which Poland is a signatory, certain portions of the former
Qerman Empire will be incorporated in the territory of Po-
land; and

WHEREAS, Under the terms of the said treaty of peace,
the boundaries of Poland not already laid down are to be
subsequently determined by the principal allied and associated
powers ;

The United States of America, the British Empire, France,
Italy, and Japan, on the one hand, confirming their recognition
of the Polish State, constituted within the said limits as a
sovereign and independent member .of the family of nations
and being anxious to insure the execution of the provisions
of Article 93 of the said treaty of peace with Germany;

Poland, on the other hand, desiring to conform her institu-
tions to the principles of liberty and justice, and to give
a sure guarantee to the inhabitants of the territory over
which she assumed sovereignty; for this purpose the follow-
ing representatives of the high contracting parties:

The President of the United States of America; his Majesty
the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land and of the British dominions beyond the seas. Emperor
of India; the President of the French Republic; his Majesty
the King of Italy; his Majesty the Emperor of Japan, and
the President of the Polish Republic, after having exchanged
their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed
as follows:

CHAPTER I.

ABTICBi: 1 — Poland undertakes that the stipulations con-
tained in Articles 2 and 8 of this chapter shall be recognized
as fundamental law, and that no law, regulation, or official
action shall conflict or interfere with these stipulations, nor
shall any law, regulation, or official action prgvail over them.

ABTICI^E 2 — Poland undertakes to assure full and complete
protection to life and liberty to all Inhabitants of Poland,
without distinction of birth, nationality, language, race, or
religion.

All inhabitants of Poland shall be entitled to the free
exercise, whether public or private, of any creed, religion, or
belief whose practices are not Inconsistent .with public order
or public morals.

ABTICI^E 3 — Poland admits and deblares to be Polish
nationals ipso facto Hungarian or Russian nationals habit-
ually resident, at the date of the coming into force of the
present treaty. In territory which is or may be recognized as
forming part of Poland under the treaties with Germany,
Austria, Hungary, or Russia, respectively, but subject to any
provisions in the said treaties relating to persons who became
resident in such territory after a specified date.

Nevertheless, the persons referred to above who are over
12 years of age will be entitled under the conditions contained
In the said treaties to opt for any other nationality which
may be open to them. Option by a husband will cover his
wife and option by parents will cover their children under
18 years of age.

Persons who have exercised the above right to option must,
except where it Is otherwise provided in the treaty of peace
with Germany, transfer within the succeeding twelve months
their place of residence to the State for which they have
opted. They will be entitled to retain their immovable
property In Polish territory. They may carry with them
their movable property of every description. No export duties
may be imposed upon them in connection with the removal
of such property.

ARTICKi: 4 — Poland admits and declares to be Polish
nationals, ipso facto and without the requirement of any
formality, persons of German, Austrian, Hungarian, or Rus-
sian nationality who were born In the said territory of parents
habitually resident there, even if at the date of the coming
into force of the present treaty they are not themselves
habitually resident there. ,

Nevertheless, within two years after the comipg Into force
of the present treaty, these persons may make a declaration
before the competent Polish authorities in the country in
which they are resident, stating that they abandon Polish
nationality, and they will then cease to be considered as
Polish nationals. In this connection a declaration by a
husband will cover his wife, and a declaration by parents
will cover their children under 18 years of age.

ABTICIiE S — Poland undertakes to put no hindrance in the
way of the exercise of the right which the persons concerned
have, under the treaties concluded or to be concluded by the
allied and associated powers with Germany, Austria, Hungary,
or Russia, to choose whether or not they will acquire Polish
nationality.

ABTICIiE 6 — All persons born in Polish territory who are
not born nationals of another State shall ipso facto become
Polish nationals.

ABTICI^i: 7 — All Polish nationals shall be equal before the
law and shall enjoy the same civil and political rights with-
out distinction as to race, language, or religion.

Differences of religion, creed, or confession shall not prej-
udice any Polish national in matters relating to the en-

joyment of civil or political rights, as for admission to public
employments, functions, and honors, or the exercise of pro-
fessions and industries.

No restriction shall be imposed on the free use by any
Polish national of any language in private intercourse. In
commerce, in religion, in the press, or in publications of .any
kind, or at public meetings.

Notwithstanding any establishment by the Polish Govern-
ment of an official language, adequate facilities shall be given
to Polish nationals of non-Polish speech for the use of their
language, either orally or in writing, before the courts.

ABTId^E 8 — Polish nationals who belong to racial, relig-
ious, or linguistic minorities shall enjoy the same treatment
and security in law and in fact as the Polish nationals. Im
particular they shall have an equal right to establish, manage,
and control at their own expense charitable, religious, and
social institutions, schools and other educational establisk-
ments, with the right to use their own language and to
exercise their religion freely therein.

ABTICI^i: 9 — Poland will provide, in the public educatloMal
system in towns and districts in which a considerable propor-
tion of Polish nationals of other than Polish speech are
residents, adequate facilities for insuring that in the primary
schools instruction shall be given to the children of such
Polish nationals through the medium of their own language.
This provision shall not prevent, the Polish Government from
making the teaching of the Polish language obligatory in
the said schools.

In towns and districts where there is a considerable
proportion of Polish nationals belonging to racial, religious,
or linguistic minorities, these minorities shall be assured an
equitable share in the enjoyment and application of the
sums which may be provided out of public funds under the
State, municipal, or other budgets, for educational, religi^oMS,
or charitable purposes.

The provisions of this article shall apply to Polish citizens
of German speech only in that part of Poland which was
German territory on Auust 1, 1914.

ARTICLE 10 — Educational committees appointed locally by
the Jewish communities of Poland will, subject to the general
control of the State, provide for the distribution of the
proportional share of public funds allocated to Jewish schools
i naccordance with Article 9, and for the organization amd
management of these schools.

The provision of Article 9 concerning the use of language
in schools shall apply to these schools.

ABTICtE 11 — Jews shall not be compelled to perform any
act which constitutes a violation of their Sabbath, nor shall
they be placed under any disability by reason of their refusal
to attend courts of law or to perform any legal business on
their Sabbath. This provision, however, shall not exempt
Jews from such obligations as shall be imposed upon all other
Polish citizens for the necessary purposes of military service,
national defense, or the preservation of public order.

Poland declares her intention to refrain from ordering or
permitting elections, whether general or local, to be held oa a
Saturday, nor will registration for electoral or other purposes
be compelled to be performed on a Saturday.

ABTICIiE 12 — Poland agrees that the stipulations in the
foregoing articles, so far as they affect persons belonging to
racial, religious, or linguistic minorities, constitute obliga-
tions of international concern, and shall be placed under the
guarantee of the League of Nations. They shall not be .
modified without the assent of a majority of the Council of
the League of Nations. The United States, the British Empire,
France. Italy, and Japan hereby agree not to withhold their
assent from any modification in these articles which is in
due form assented to by a majority of the Coimcil of the
League of Nations.

Poland agrees that any member of the Council of the
League of Nations shall have the right to bring to the atten-
tion of the Council any infraction, or any danger of infrac-
tion, of any of these obligations, and that the Council may
thereupon take such action and give such direction as it may
deem proper and effective in the circumstances.

Poland further agrees that any difference of opinion as to
question of law or fact arising out of these articles, between
the Polish Government and any of the principal allied and
associated powers, or any other power a member of the

63

Council (5f Ihe League of
dispute of an international
Covenant of the League of
liereby consents that any
party thereof demands, be
of International Justice.
Court shall be final and sh
as an award under Articl

Nations, shall be held to be a.
character under. Article 14 of the
Nations. The Polish Government
such dispute shall, if the other
referred to the Permanent Court
The decision of the Permanent
all have the same force and effect
13 of the covenant.

CHAPTER II.

ARTICIii: 13 — Each of the principal allied and associated
powers, on the one part, and Poland on the other shall be at
liberty to appoint diplomatic representatives to reside in their
respective capitals, as well as Consul Generals, Consuls,
Vice Consuls, and Consular Agents, to reside in the towns
and ports of their respective territories.

Consul Generals, Consuls, Vice Consuls, and Consular
Agents, however, shall not enter upon their duties until
they have been admitted in the usual manner by the Gov-
erment in' the territory of which they are stationed.

Consul Generals, Consuls, Vice Consuls, and Consular
Agents shall enjoy all the facilities, privileges, exemptions,
and immunities of every kind which are or shall be granted
to Consular officers of the most favored nation.

ARTICLE 14 — Pending the establishment of a permanent
tariff by the Polish Government goods originating in the allied
and associated States shall not be subject to any higher duties
on importation into Poland than the most favorable rates
of duty applicable to goods of the same kind under either
the German, Austro-Hungarian, or Russian customs tariffs on
July 1. 1914.

ABTICI^E 15 — Poland undertakes to make no treaty, con-
vention, or arrangement, and to take no other action, which
will prevent her from joining in any general agreement for
the equitable treatment of the commerce of other States that
may be concluded under the auspices of the League of
N'ations within five years from the coming into force of the
present treaty.

Poland also undertakes to extend to all the allied and as-
sociated States any favors or privileges in customs matters
which they may grant during the same period of five years
to any State with which, since August, 1914, the Allies have
been at war, or to any State which may have concluded with
.A.ustria special customs arrangements as provided for in
the treaty of peace to be concluded with Austria.

ARTIC&i; 16 — Pending the conclusion of the general agree-
ment referred to above, Poland undertakes to treat on the
same footing as national vessels, or vessels of the most fa-
vored nation, the vessels of all the allied and associated
States which accord similar treatment to Polish vessels.

By way of exception from this provision, the right of
Poland or any other allied or associated State to confine her
maritime coasting trade to national vessels is expressly
reserved.

ABTICKE 17 — Pending the conclusion, under the auspices
of the League of Nations, of a general convention to secure
and maintain freedom of communications and of transit,
Poland undertakes to accord freedom of transit of persons,
goods, vessels, carriages, wagons, and mails in transit to or
from any allied or associated State over Polish territory,
including territorial waters, and to treat them at least as
favorably as the persons, goods, vessels, carriages, wagons,
and mails respectively of Polish or of any other more favored
nationality, origin, importation, or ownership, as regards
facilities, charges, restrictions, and all other matters.

All charges imposed in Poland on such traffic in transit
shall be reasonable, having regard to the conditions of the
traffic Goods in transit shall be exempt from all customs
or other duties. Tariffs for transit traffic across Poland and
tariffs between Poland and any allied or associated power,
involving through tickets or waybills, shall be established at
the request of that allied or associated power.

Freedom of transit will extend to postal telegraphic and
telephonic services.

It is agreed that no allied or associated power can claim
the benefit of these provisions on behalf of any part of its
territory in which reciprocal treatment is not accorded with
respect to the same subject matter.

If within a period of five years from the coming into force
of the present treaty no general convention as aforesaid
shall have been concluded under the auspices of the League
of Nations, Poland shall be at liberty at any time thereafter
to give twelve months' notice to the Secretary General of
the League of Nations to terminate obligations of this article.

ABXICKE 18. — Pending the conclusion of a general con-
vention on the International regime of waterways, Poland
undertakes to apply to the river system of the Vistula (in-
cluding the Bug and the Narest) the regime applicable to
international waterways set out in Articles 332 to 337 of
the treaty of peace with Germany.

ARTICIiE 19 — Poland, undertakes to adhere, within twelve
months of the coming into force of the present treaty, to the
international conventions specified in Annex I.

Poland undertakes to adhere to any new convention, con-
cluded with the approval of the Council of the League of
Nations within five years of the coming into force of the
present' treaty, to replace any of the international instruments
specified in Annex I. , , , .,^, .,

The Polish Government undertakes within twelve months
to notify the Secretary General of the League of Nations

whether or not Poland desires to adhere to either or both
of the international conventions specified in Annex II.

Until Poland has adhered to the two conventions last
specified in Annex I. she agrees, on condition of reciprocity,
to protect by effective measures the industrial, literary and
artistic property of ' nationals of the allied and associated
States. In the case of any allied or associated State not ad-
hering to the said conventions, Poland agrees to continue
to afford such effective protection on the same conditions until
the conclusion of a special bilateral treaty or" agreement for
that purpose with such allied or associated State.

Pending her adhesion to the other conventions specified in
Anne.x I., Poland will secure to the nationals of the allied
and associated powers the advantages to which they would
be entitled vmder the said conventions.

Poland further agrees, on condition of reciprocity, to recog-
nize and protect all rights in any industrial, literary, or ar-
tistic property belonging to the nationals of the allied and
associated States now in force or which, but for the war,
would have been in force in any part of her territories before
their transfer to Poland. For such purposes they will accord
the extensions of time agreed to in Articles 307 and 308 of
the treaty with Germany.

ANNEX I.
Telegraphic and Radlo-Telegrraphlc Ck>nventlona

International Telegraphic Convention signed at St. Peters-
bury July 10-22, 1875.

Regulations and tariffs drawn up by the International Tel-
egraph Conference signed at Lisbon .lune 11, 1908.

International Radio-Telegraphic Convention, July 5, 1912.

Railway Conventions

Conventions and arrangements signed at Berne on Oct. 14,
1890, Sept. 20, 1893, July 16. 1895, and Sept. 19, 1906, and the
current supplementary provisions made under those conven-
tions.

Agreement on May 15, 1886, regarding the sealing of rail-
way trucks subject to custom inspections, and protocol of
May 18, 1907.

Agreement of May 15, 1886, regarding the technical stand-
ardization of railways, as modified on May 18, 1907.

Sanitary Convention

Convention of Dec. 3, 1903.

Other Conventions

Convention of Sept. 26, 1906, for the suppression of night
work for women.

Convention of Sept. 26, 1906, for the suppression of the
use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches.

Conventions of May 18, 1904, and May 4, 1910, regarding the
suppression of the white slave traffic.

Convention of May 4, 1910, regarding the suppression of
obscene publications.

International conventions of Paris of March 20, 1883, as
revised at Washington in 1911, for the protection of industrial
property.

International convention of Sept. 9, 1886, revised at Berlin
on Nov. 13, 1908, and completed by the additional protocol
signed at Berne on March 20, 1914, for the protection -of
literary and artistic works.

ANNEX II.

Agreement of Madrid of April 14, 1891, for the prevention
of false indications of origin on goods, revised at Washington
in 1911, and agreement of Madrid of April 14, 1891, for the
international registration of trade marks, revised at Washing-
ton in 1911.

ARTZCIiE 20 — All rights and privileges accorded by the
foregoing articles to the allied and associated States shall be
accorded equally to all States members of the League of
Nations.

The present treaty, of which the French and English texts
are both authentic, shall be ratified. It shall come into force
at the same time as the treaty of peace with Germany.

The deposit of ratifications shall be made at Paris.

Powers of which the seat of the Government is outside
Europe will be entitled merely to inform the Government of
the French Republic through their diplomatic representative
at Paris that their ratification has been given. In that case
they must transmit the instrument of ratification as soon
as possible.

A procSs-verbal of the deposit of ratifications will be drawn
up. ^

The French Government will transmit to all the signatory
powers a certified copy of the procSs-verbal of the deposit of
ratifications.

ARTICLE 21 — Poland agrees to assume responsibility for
such proportion of the Russian public debt and other Russian
public liabilities of any kind as may be assigned to her under
a special convention between the principal allied and asso-
ciated powers on the one hand and Poland on the other, to
be prepared by a commission appointed by the above States.
In the event of the commission not arriving at an agreement,
the point at issue shall be referred for immediate arbitration
to the League of Nations.

In faith whereof the above-named plenipotentiaries have
signed the present treaty.

Done at Versailles, (Jnne 28, 1919), In a single copy -wlitcli
will remain deposited in the archives of the French Bapnblle,
and of which authenticated copies will be trannulttad to aach
of the signatory powers.

64

'■■=-•«.'■

"It is giving the Jews very little real
assistance to single out, as ; is some-
times done, for reprobation and protest,
the country where they have perhaps
suffered least."

—Sir H. RUMBOLD

British Minister to Poland